SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN
THE HUMAN MALE
ALFRED C. KINSEY
Professor of Zoology, Indiana University
WARDELL B. POMEROY
Research Associate, Indiana University
CLYDE E. MARTIN
Research Associate, Indiana University
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA AND LONDON
1949
Copyright, 1948, by W. B. Saunders Company
Copyright under the International Copyright Union
All Rights Reserved
.This book is protected by copyright. No part of it
may be duplicated or reproduced in any manner
without written permission from the publisher.
Published, January 5, 1948
Second Printing, January 19, 1948
Third Printing, January 22, 1948
Fourth Printing, January 23, 1948
Fifth Printing, February 2, 1948
Sixth Printing, February 24, 1948
Seventh Printing, March 5, 1948
Eighth Printing, August 12, 1948
Ninth Printing, June 14, 1949
MADE IN U.S.A .
PRESS OF
W. B. SAUNDERS COMPANY
PHILADELPHIA
TO
the twelve thousand persons who
have contributed to these data
AND TO
the eighty-eight thousand more who,
someday, will help complete this study
PREFACE
Seen from the four points of the compass a great mountain may present
aspects that are very different one from the other — so different that bitter
disagreements can arise between those who have watched the mountain,
truly and well, through all the seasons, but each from a different quarter.
Reality, too, has many facets — some too readily disputed or denied by
those who rely only on their, own experience. Nor can science itself rightly
lay claim to finality or the complete comprehension of reality, but only to
honesty and accuracy of the additional facets it may be permitted to dis-
cover and report. I say “may be permitted” since the human race is familiar
with the suppression of truth in both small matters and great. The history
of science is part of the history of the freedom to observe, to reflect, to
experiment, to record, and to bear witness. It has been a perilous and a
passionate history indeed, and not yet ended.
Living creatures possess three basic characteristics or capacities — growth,
adaptation, and reproduction. In human biology, the reproductive func-
tion has been the least and the last studied, scientifically. To the National
Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex belongs
the credit for sponsoring a more significant series of research studies on sex
than has been accomplished perhaps by any other agency. Among these
studies the findings of Dr. Alfred C. Kinsey and his associates at Indiana
University deserve attention for their extent, their thoroughness, and their
dispassionate objectivity. Dr. Kinsey has studied sex phenomena of human
beings as a biologist would examine biological phenomena, and the evi-
dence he has secured is presented from the scientist’s viewpoint, without
moral bias or prejudice derived from current taboos.
Certainly no aspect of human biology in our current civilization stands
in more need of scientific knowledge and courageous humility than that of
sex. The history of medicine proves that in so far as man seeks to know
himself and face his whole nature, he has become free from bewildered
fear, despondent shame, or arrant hypocrisy. As long as sex is dealt with
in the current confusion of ignorance and sophistication, denial and indul-
gence, suppression and stimulation, punishment and exploitation, secrecy
and display, it will be associated with a duplicity and indecency that lead
neither to intellectual honesty nor human dignity.
These studies are sincere, objective, and determined explorations of a
field manifestly important to education, medicine, government, and the
VI
PRJbjeACh
integrity of human conduct generally. They have demanded from Dr.
Kinsey and his colleagues very unusual tenacity of purpose, tolerance,
analytical competence, social skills, and real courage. I hope that the
reader will match the authors with an equal and appropriate measure of
cool attention, courageous judgment, and scientific equanimity.
Alan Gregg
The Medical Sciences
Rockefeller Foundation
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First of all, acknowledgment should be made to the 12,000 persons
who have contributed histories, and particularly to the 5300 males who
have provided the^ data on which the present volume is based. These per-
sons represent each and every age, from children to the oldest groups ; they
represent every social level, of several racial groups. If these persons had
not helped there would have been no study. It has taken considerable
courage for many of them to discuss such intimate aspects of their his-
tories, and to risk their confidences with the scientific investigators. They
have contributed in order that there should be an increase in our knowledge
of this important aspect of human biology and sociology. It is unfortunate
that we cannot name each and every one involved. Those who have spent
time in persuading their friends to cooperate have contributed in a very
special way; and to them we are especially indebted for devoted and effec-
tive service.
Herman B W^ells, the President of Indiana University, Fernandus
Payne, Dean of the Graduate School of the University, the Trustees, and
others in the Administration of the University have constantly encouraged,
materially supported, and stoutly defended the importance of this research.
The Rockefeller Foundation has contributed a major portion of the cost
of the program during the past six years. Dr, Alan Gregg, as Director for
the Medical Sciences of The Foundation, has encouraged a wide-scale,
long-time project which would adequately cover all social levels and all
aspects of sexual behavior in our society.
The National Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems
of Sex, as a part of the Medical Division of the Council, has administered
the funds granted by The Rockefeller Foundation. It has encouraged and
advised on many aspects of the research. Especial mention should be made
of the cordial support given by Dr. Robert M. Yerkes, who has served as
Chairman of the Research Council’s Committee since its inception more
than twenty-five years ago. Under Dr. Yerkes’ guidance the Committee has
contributed to a long list of notable projects on the sex endocrines; on the
behavior of chimpanzees at the Yerkes Laboratories at Orange Park,
Florida; on the behavior of lower mammals, particularly under the direc-
tion of Dr. Frank A. Beach, formerly at the American Museum of Natural
History and now at Yale University; and on the human studies which were
published by Peck and Wells (1923, 1925), by Hamilton (1929), by Kath-
erine Davis (1929), by Terman et al. (1938), by Landis (1940, 1942), and
by still others.
vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
viii
The statistical set-up of the research was originally checked by Dr.
Lowell Reed of the School of Hygiene and Public Health at The Johns
Hopkins University. A long list of persons experienced in sampling and in
other aspects of statistics has been constantly available for consultation.
We are especially indebted to Dr. Frank K. Edmondson, Chairman of the
Department of Astronomy at Indiana University, for continual guidance
and supervision of the details of the statistical methods which have been
used.
Dr. R. L. Dickinson of the New York Academy of Medicine has rendered
peculiar service based on his long experience with research projects in the
field of human sex behavior. As the first head of the National Committee
on Maternal Health, Dr. Dickinson encouraged a long list of pioneer
studies, particularly on the clinical aspects of human reproduction and
sexual behavior; and we have had the benefit of his accumulated experi-
ence, and his constant advice on many of the details of this research.
A number of other persons, additional to those whose names appear as
authors of the present volume, have served for various periods of time as
members of the full-time staflf on this project. Dr. Glenn V. Ramsey, now
of Princeton University, was responsible for a series of histories from
younger boys 'and served on this staff for a short time before going into
the Army as clinical psychologist during the recent war. Dr. Vincent Nowlis,
now psychologist at the Child Welfare Research Station of the State Uni-
versity of Iowa, and Dr. Robert E. BugJ^ee, now of the Department of
Biological Sciences at the University of Rochester, were formerly mem-
bers of this staff, took some of the histories, and contributed to the labora-
tory handling of the data. Dr. Nowlis has critically reviewed the whole
manuscript of this volume. Dr. Paul H. Gebhard, trained in anthropology
at Harvard University, has been a member of the staff during the past
year. Mrs. Elizabeth Murnan has given full time as statistical calculator
during the past three years. Mrs. Velma Baldwin, Mrs. Enola Van Valer
Trafford, and Mrs. Ellen Lauritzen Welch have served as secretaries and
research assistants on the project. Mrs. Hedwig Gruen Leser has been
the German translator on the staff.
Finally, much of the success of this project is to be attributed to our
wives, without whose encouragement and specific help, and without whose
support it would have been impossible to have carried this project through
to its present point of development.
None of these persons is responsible for any of the errors which we,
the authors, may have made in our calculations or in our interpretations
of the data; but the credit for any merits which this volume may have
should be shared by those to whom we have made acknowledgment.
The Authors
PUBLISHER’S FOREWORD
This volume is presented as an objective factual study of sexual be-
havior in the human male. It is based on surveys made by members
of the staff of Indiana University, and supported by the National Re-
search Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex by means
of funds contributed by the Medical Division of The Rockefeller Foun-
dation.
This book is intended primarily for workers in the fields of medicine,
biology, psychology, sociology, anthropology and allied sciences and for
teachers, social workers, personnel officers, law enforcement groups, and
others concerned with the direction of human behavior.
W. B. Saunders Company
CONTENTS
Preface by Alan Gregg v
Acknowledgments vii
PART I. HISTORY AND METHOD
1. Historical Introduction 3
Objectives in the Present Study 5
Development of Present Study 9
Difficulties encountered, 11. Cooperating groups, 13.
The Taxonomic Approach 16
In biology, 17. In applied and social sciences, IS. Statistical basis, 20.
Status of Previous Sex Studies 21
2. Interviewing 35
Making Contacts 36
Establishing Rapport 41
The Confidence of the Record 44
Technical Devices in Interviewing 47
Putting the subject at ease^ 47. Assuring privacy, 47. Establishing rap-
port, 48. Sequence of topics, 48. Recognizing the subject’s mental status,
49. Recording at time of interview, 50. Systematic coverage, 50. Supple-
mentary exploration, 51. Standardizing the point of the question, 51.
Adapting the form of the question, 52. Avoiding bias, 52. Direct ques-
tions, 53. Placing the burden of denial on the subject, 53. Avoiding
multiple questions, 54. Rapid-fire questioning, 54. Cross-checks on ac-
curacy, 54. Proving the answer, 55. Forcing a subject, 55. Limits of the
interview, 56. Avoiding personal identifications, 57. Avoiding contro-
versial issues, 57. Overt activities versus attitudes, 57. Interviewing
young children, 58.
The Interviewer’s Background of Knowledge. 59
3. Statistical Problems 63
Nature of the Data 63
Coding 71
Supplementary Data 73
The Twelve-way Breakdown 75
Sex, 75. Race-cultural group, 75. Marital status, 76. Age, 76, Age at
adolescence, 77. Educational level, 77. Occupational class of subject, 77.
Occupational class of parent, 79. Rural-urban background, 79. Religious
groups, 79. Religious adherence, 79. Geographic origin, 81.
Size of Sample 82
Diversification of Sample 92
Hundred Percent Samples 93
XI
Xii CONTENTS
Controlling Partial Samples. 101
Order of Sampling 104
Synthesizing a U.S. Sample 105
Statistical Analyses 109
Individual frequencies, 110. Group frequencies, 110. Frequency curves,
111. Group averages, 111. Means, 112. Standard deviation of the mean,
112. Medians, 113. Percents of individual outlet, 114. Percents of group
outlet, 114. Correlation coefficients, 1 14. Accumulative incidence curves,
114.
4. Validity of the Data 120
Re-takes 121
Comparisons of Spouses 125
Other Cross-checks 128
Memory versus Physical Findings 130
Smooth Trends 132
Hundred Percent Samples 133
Comparisons of Interviewers 133
Stability of Techniques 143
Immediate versus Remote Recall 148
Older versus Younger Generations 150
Conclusions 150
PART IL FACTORS AFFECTING SEXUAL OUTLET
5. Early Sexual Growth and Activity 157
Erotic Arousal and Orgasm 157
Pre-adolescent Sex Play 163
Homosexual play, 168. Heterosexual play, 173. Animal contacts, 174.
Pre-adolescent Orgasm 175
Adolescence 182
6. Total Sexual Outlet 193
Frequency of Total Outlet 193
Individual Variation 195
Factors Effecting Variation 203
Low Frequencies and Sublimation 205
High Frequencies of Outlet 213
7. Age and Sexual Outlet 218
Adolescent Sexual Activity 219
Maximum activity, 219. Social significance, 221. Institutional problems,
223.
Sexual Aging 226
Old Age and Impotence 235
Masturbation and Age 238
Nocturnal Emissions and Age 243
Petting to Climax, and Age 245
Pre-marital Intercourse and Age 249
Marital Intercourse and Age 253
CONTENTS XIll
Extra-marital Intercourse and Age 257
Homosexual Activity and Age ; 259
Animal Contacts and Age 261
Post-marital Outlets and Age 262
8. Marital Status and Sexual Outlet 263
Social and Legal Limitations 263
Total Sexual Outlet 268
Sources of Sexual Outlet. . . 273
Masturbation, 273. Nocturnal emissions, 277. Pre-marital petting, 277.
Heterosexual intercourse, 277. Homosexual contacts, 285. Animal con-
tacts, 289.
Post-marital Outlets 294
9. Age of Adolescence and Sexual Outlet. 297
Onset of Sexual Activity 299
Frequencies of Total Outlet 303
Factors Involved 309
Sources of Outlet 313
Masturbation, 313. Pre-mantal inlercourse, 313. Homosexual outlet,
315. Other outlets, 315.
Aging versus Early Activity 319
Conclusions 325
10. Social Level and Sexual Outlet 327
Defining Social Levels 329
Educational level as a criterion, 330. Occupational class as a criterion,
331. Realities of social levels, 332.
Incidences and Frequencies of Sexual Outlet 335
Total outlet, 335. Masturbation, 339. Nocturnal emissions, 343. Hetero-
sexual petting, 345. Pre-marital intercourse, 347. Intercourse with pros-
titutes, 351. Marital intercourse, 355. Homosexual contacts, 357. Ani-
mal intercourse, 362.
Attitudes on Sexual Techniques 363
Sources of erotic arousal, 363. Nudity, 365. Manual manipulation, 367.
Oral eroticism, 369. Positions in intercourse, 373.
Patterns of Behavior 374
Masturbation, 375. Petting, 377. Pre-marital Intercourse, 381. Extra-
marital intercourse, 383, Homosexual contacts, 383.
Social Implications 384
In clinical practice, 386. In social service, 387. In the Army and Navy,
388. In everyday contacts, 389. In the law, 389.
Social Levels among Negroes 393
11. Stability of Sexual Patterns 394
Patterns in Successive Generations 394
Comparisons of accumulative incidences, 396. Comparisons of frequen-
cies, 399.
Vertical Mobility: at an Early Age 417
Occupational classes 2 and 3, 426. Occupational class 4, 427. Occupa-
tional class 5, 433. Occupational class 6, 433. Occupational class 7, 436.
Xiv CONTENTS
Vertical Mobility: at Later Ages 436
Transmission of Sexual Mores 440
12. Rural-Urban Background and Sexual Outlet 449
Frequencies of Total Outlet 451
Specific Sexual Outlets 453
Masturbation, 453. Nocturnal emissions, 453. Petting to climax, 453.
Pre-marital intercourse, 455. Marital intercourse, 455. Homosexual out-
let, 455. Animal contacts, 459.
13. Religious Background and Sexual Outlet 465
Total Sexual Outlet 469
Masturbation 472
Nocturnal Emissions 476
Pre-marital Petting to Climax 477
Pre-marital Intercourse 477
Marital Intercourse 479
Homosexual Outlets 482
Religious Bases of the Mores 483
PART III. SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
14. Masturbation 497
Definition 497
References 498
Incidences and Frequencies 499
Incidences, 499. Pre-adolescent activity, 499. Adolescent activity, 506.
In various groups, 507.
Techniques 509
Correlations with Other Outlets 511
Significance of Masturbation 512
15* Nocturnal Emissions 517
References 518
Incidences and Frequencies 519
Content of Nocturnal Sex Dreams 525
Relation to Other Outlets i 527
16. heterosexual Petting 531
References 532
Incidences and Frequencies 533
Techniques in Petting 54O
Social Significance of Petting 542
17. Pre-marital Intercourse 547
References 543
Incidences and Frequencies 549
Nature of Pre-marital Intercourse ' 557
Significance of Pre-marital Intercourse 559
CONTENTS
XV
18. Marital Intercourse 563
References 564 '
Incidence and Significance 564
Frequencies 569
Coital Techniques in Marriage 571
Extent of petting, 572. Mouth stimulation, 573. Breast stimulation, 574.
Genital stimulation, manual, 575. Genital stimulation, oral, 576. Posi-
tions in intercourse, 578. Anal eroticism, 579. Speed of male orgasm,
579. Nudity, 581. Preferences for light or dark, 581.
19. Extra-marital Intercourse 583
References 584
Incidences and Frequencies 584
Relation to Other Outlets 589
Social Significance 591
20. Intercourse with Prostitutes 595
References 596
Incidences and Frequencies 597
Techniques 604
Significance of Prostitution 605
21. Homosexual Outlet • 610
References : 611
Definition 612
Previous Estimates of Incidence 617
Incidence Data in Present Sfudy 623
Frequencies 631
The Heterosexual-Homosexual Balance 636
Bisexuality 656
Scientific and Social Implications 659
22. Animal Contacts 667
References 669
Incidences and Frequencies 669
Nature of Contacts 674
Social Significance 675
23. Clinical Tables 681
Definitions 682
How To Use the Tables 685
Single White Males 686
Married White Males 710
Previously Married White Males 730
Appendix on Sample Size 736
Bibliography 766
Index
789
Part I
HISTORY AND METHOD
CHAPTER 1 . HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2 . INTERVIEWING
CHAPTER 3 . STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
CHAPTER 4 . VALIDITY OF THE DATA
Chapter 1
fflSTORICAL INTRODUCTION
The present volume is a progress report from a case history study on
human sex behavior. The study has been underway during the past nine
years. Throughout these years, it has had the sponsorship and support of
Indiana University, and during the past six years the support of the
National Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex,
with funds granted by the Medical Division of The Rockefeller Foundation.
It is a fact-finding survey in which an attempt is being made to discover
what people do sexually, and what factors account for differences in sexual
behavior among individuals, and among various segments of the population.
For some time now there has been an increasing awareness among
many people of the desirability of obtaining data about sex which would
represent an accumulation of scientific fact completely divorced from
questions of moral value and social custom. Practicing physicians find
thousands of their patients in need of such objective data. Psychiatrists
and analysts find that a majority of their patients need help in resolving
sexual conflicts that have arisen in their lives. An increasing number of
persons would like to bring an educated intelligence into the consideration
of such matters as sexual adjustments in marriage, the sexual guidance of
children, the pre-marital sexual adjustments of youth, sex education, sex-
ual activities which are in conflict with the mores, and problems confronting
persons who are interested in the social control of behavior through reli-
gion, custom, and the forces of the law. Before it is possible to think
scientifically on any of these matters, more needs to be known about the
actual behavior of people, and about the inter-relationships of that be-
havior with the biologic and social aspects of their histories.
Hitherto, there have not been suflncient answers to these questions, for
human sexual behavior represents one of the least explored segments of
biology, psychology, and sociology. Scientifically more has been known
about the sexual behavior of some of the farm and laboratory animals. In
our Western European- American culture, sexual responses, more than any
other physiologic activities, have been subject to religious evaluation,
social taboo, and formal legislation. It is obvious that the failure to learn
more about human sexual activity is the outcome of the influence which
the custom and the law have had upon scientists as individuals, and of the
not immaterial restrictions which have been imposed upon scientific inves-
tigations in this field.
3
4
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
There are cultures which more freely accept sexual activities as matters
of everyday physiology Malinowski 1929), while maintaining exten-
sive rituals and establishing taboos around feeding activities. One may
wonder what scientific knowledge we would have of digestive functions if
the primary taboos in our own society concerned food and feeding. Sexual
responses, however, involve emotional changes which are more intense than
those associated with any other sort of physiologic activity. For that rea-
son it is difficult to comprehend how any society could become as con-
cerned about respiratory functioning, about digestive functioning, about
excretory functioning, or about any of the other physiologic processes. It
is probable that the close association of sex, religious values, rituals, and
cdStom in most of the civilizations of the world, has been primarily con-
sequent on the emotional content of sexual behavior.
Sexual activities may affect persons other than those who are directly
involved, or do damage to the social organization as a whole. Defenders of
the custom frequently contend that this is the sufficient explanation of
society’s interest in the individual’s sexual behavior; but this is probably a
post factum rationalization that fails to take into account the historic data
on the origin of the custom (May 1931, Westermarck 1936). It is ordinarily
said that criminal law is designed to protect property and to protect
persons, and if society’s only interest in controlling sex behavior were to
protect persons, then the criminal codes concerned with assault and
battery should provide adequate protection. The fact that there is a body
of sex laws which are apart from the laws protecting persons is evidence of
their distinct function, namely that of protecting custom. Just because they
have this function, sex customs and the sex laws seem more significant,
and are defended with more emotion than the'laws that concern property
or person. The failure of the scientist to go further than he has in studies
of sex is undoubtedly a reflection of society’s attitudes in this field.
Scientists have been uncertain whether any large portion of the popula-
tion was willing that a thoroughly objective, fact-finding investigation of
sex should be made. It is quite probable that an investigation of the sort
undertaken here would have been more difficult some years ago; but we
have found that there is now an abundant and widespread interest in the
possibilities of such a study. Thousands of persons have helped by con-
tributing records of their own sexual activities, by interesting others in the
research, and by providing the sort of constant support and encourage-
ment without which the pursuit of this study would have been much more
difficult, if not impossible. Even the scientist seems to have underestimated
the faith of the man of the street in the scientific method, his respect for
the results of scientific research, and his confidence that his own life and
the whole of the social organization will ultimately benefit from the accu-
mulation of scientifically established data.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
5
OBJECTIVES IN THE PRESENT STUDY
The present study, then, represents an attempt to accumulate an objec-
tively determined body of fact about sex which strictly avoids social or
moral interpretations of the fact. Each person who reads this report will
want to make interpretations in accordance with his understanding of
moral values and social significances ; but that is not part of the scientific
method and, indeed, scientists have no special capacities for making such
evaluatiufts.
Figure 1. Sources of histories.
One dot represents 50 cases
The data in this study are being secured through first-hand interviews.
These, so far, have been limited to persons resident in the United States.
Histories have come from every state in the Union, but more particularly
from the northeastern quarter of the country, in the area bounded by
Massachusetts, Michigan, Tennessee, and Kansas (Figure 1). It is intended
that the ultimate sample shall represent a cross-section of the entire popu-
lation, from all parts of the United States. The study has already included
persons who belong to the following groups:
Males, females
Whites, Negroes, other races
Single, married, previously married
Ages three to ninety
Adolescent at different ages
Various educational levels
Various occupational classes
Various social levels
Urban, rural, mixed backgrounds
Various religious groups
Various degrees of adherence to reli-
gious groups, or with no religion
Various geographic origins
6
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The study should ultimately include series of cases which will justify
a description of the sexual patterns for each of these segments of the popu-
lation. Whenever it is significant to have data for the American population
as a whole, such calculations may be obtained by weighting and combin-
ing the figures for the individual groups (Chapter 3).
It is basically most important to know the story for each group in detail.
By pragmatic tests of the effect of adding additional histories to the
samples, it has been found that about 300 cases are necessary for a good
understanding of any group in this study (Chapter 3). The size of the total
sample necessary to analyze any larger part of the population thus depends
Upon the total number of sub-groups which it is deemed desirable to
investigate.
To date, about 12,000 persons have contributed histories to this study.
This represents forty times as much material as was included in the best of
the previous studies; but 12,000 histories do not provide sufficient material
for comprehending even those groups which are most frequently encoun-
tered in the population. In addition there are other groups which must be
studied because they are significant in analyses of more general problems,
or because they occupy an unique or critical position in the ontogenies of
particular patterns of behavior. It is now estimated that 100,000 histories
will be necessary to carry out such a project. With a considerably expanded
staff, it should be possible to secure that many histories in the course of
another twenty years, and this is the goal toward which the present pro-
gram is oriented.
Of the histories now in hand, about 6300 are male, and about 5300 of
these are the white males who have provided the data for the present
publication. The generalizations reached in this volume are limited to those
groups on which more or less adequate material is now available, or to
those smaller groups which fall in line with the trends established for the
whole series of data, But no generalizations can yet be made for many
important elements in the population. For instance, it is not yet possible to
give more than a suggestion of what happens among males beyond fifty
years of age. We have only begun to accumulate data for the highly impor-
tant chapter that involves infants and. very young children. Older, un-
married males, and males who have previously been married, present an
interesting situation which is only glimpsed in the present volume. The
story for the rural population is quite incomplete, as is also the record for
a number of the religious groups. Factory workers and manual labor
groups are not sufficiently represented in the sample. Large sections of the
country are not yet covered by the survey, although it is certain that there
are striking geographic differences in patterns of sex behavior. The story
for* the Negro male cannot be told now, because the Negro sample, while
of some size, is not yet sufficient for making analyses comparable to those
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
7
made here for the white male. At no place has the sample been large enough
to allow more than a six-way breakdown in the statistical analyses (Chap-
ter 3), although enough important factors are now recognized to call for
a twelve-way breakdown. A later revision of the present volume may be
based on a further accumulation of male histories.
A volume on the female, comparable to the present volume on the male,
should be possible in the not too distant future; and volumes on particular
groups and on special problems in human sexuality can appear when
there is a suflScient increase in the total accumulation of data. It is now
planned to publish volumes on:
Sexual behavior in the human female
Sexual factors in marital adjustment
Legal aspects of sex behavior
The heterosexual-homosexual balance
Sexual adjustments in institutional populations
Prostitution
Sex education
Other special problems
All kinds of persons and all aspects of human sexual behavior are being
included in this survey. No preconception of what is rare or what is com-
mon, what is moral or socially significant, or what is normal and what is
abnormal has entered into the choice of the histories or into the selection
of the items recorded on them. Such limitations of the material would have
interfered with the determination of the fact. Nothing has done more to
block the free investigation of sexual behavior than the almost universal
acceptance, even among scientists, of certain aspects of that behavior as
normal, and of other aspects of that behavior as abnormal. The similarity
of distinctions between the terms normal and abnormal, and the terms
right and wrong, amply demonstrates the philosophic, religious, and cul-
tural origins of these concepts (Chapter 6) ; and the ready acceptance of
those distinctions among scientific men may provide the basis for one of the
severest criticisms which subsequent generations can make of the scientific
quality of nineteenth century and early twentieth century scientists. This
is first of all a report on what people do, which raises no question of what
they should do, or what kinds of people do it. It is the story of the sexual
behavior of the American male, as we find him. It is not, in the usual sense,
a study of the normal male or of normal behavior, any more than it is a
study of abnormal males, or of abnormal behavior. It is an unfettered
investigation of all types of sexual activity, as found among all kinds of
males.
There has not even been a distinction between those whom the psy-
chiatrist would consider sexually well-adjusted persons and those whom he
8
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
would regard as neurotic, psychotic, or at least psychopathic personalities.
To have so hmited the study would, as with moral evaluations, have con-
stituted a pre-acceptance of the categories whose reality and existence were
under investigation. That this agnostic approach has been profitable is
evidenced throughout this report by the data we have obtained on the
high incidences and considerable frequencies, among well-adjusted per-
sons, of behavior which has usually been considered to be both rare and
abnormal. The study should constitute a considerable brief for the avoid-
ance of classifications until there is an adequate understanding of the
phenomena involved, especially if such classifications reflect evaluations
that have no scientific origins.
This is a study of all aspects of human sexual behavior, and not a study
of its biologic aspects, or of its psychologic aspects, or of its sociologic
aspects, as separate entities. What the human animal does sexually may be
the concern of many academic departments, but the behavior in each case
is a unit which must be comprehended as such and simultaneously on all
of its several faces. Consequently, the persons involved in this research
have been chosen because of their special backgrounds in a diversity of
disciplines : anthropology, biology, psychology, clinical psychology, animal
behavior, and the social sciences; and it is planned that persons trained in
still other fields shall in time join in the research. Throughout the nine
years of the study, many hours have been spent in consultation with
specialists outside this staff, particularly in the following fields :
Anatomy Neurology
Animal behavior Obstetrics
Anthropology
Astronomy (statistical)
Biology
Child development
Criminal law
Endocrinology
General physiology
Genetics
Gynecology
Human physiology
Institutional management
Law enforcement
Marriage counseling
Medicine (various branches)
Military authorities
Penology
Psychiatry
Psychoanalysis
Psychology, general
Psychology, clinical
Psychology, experimental
Public health
Public opinion polls
Sex education
Social work
Sociology
Statistics
Urology
Venereal disease
Rarely has any project had more specific help from specialists in so many
contingent areas. It is unfortunate that the number of persons involved is
too large to allow specific acknowledgment by name.
While the present volume may be of immediate use to many persons,
its publication should emphasize the limitations of our present knowledge
and should serve a most useful function if it enlists additional support for
the continuance of the research and its pursuit to its ultimate goal. Eighty-
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
9
eight thousand other persons will need to contribute histories if the survey
is to cover the major segments of the population. It is further hoped that the
publication of this over-all study will encourage specialists in various fields
of biology, human physiology, psychology, sociology, and other disci-
plines to undertake research on problems which are little more than
exposed by the present survey.
DEVELOPMENT OF PRESENT STUDY
The techniques of this research have been taxonomic, in the sense in
which modern biologists employ the term. It was born out of the senior
author’s long-time experience with a problem in insect taxonomy. The
transfer from insect to human material is not illogical, for it has been a
transfer of a method that may be applied to the study of any variable popu-
lation, in any field.
As a teacher in biology, the senior author had had his students bring him
the usual number of questions about sex. On investigating biologic,
psychologic, psychiatric, and sociologic studies to secure the answers to
some of these questions, the author, as a taxonomist, was struck with the
inadequacy of the samples on which such studies were being based, and the
apparent unawareness of the investigators that generalizations were not
warranted on the bases of such small samples. Stray individuals had been
studied here, a few of them there, forty males in the next study, three hun-
dred females in the most detailed of the case history studies (Landis et al.
1940). More extended samples had been used only in the questionnaire
studies, but they were of doubtful validity in connection with a subject like
sex (Chapter 2). All of the studies taken together did not begin to provide
a sample of such size and so distributed as a taxonomist would demand in
studying a plant or animal species, or a student of public opinion would
need before he could safely describe public thinking or predict the future
behavior of any portion of the population. The sex studies were on a very
different scale from the insect studies where, in the most recent problem
(preliminarily reported in Kinsey 1942), we had had 150,000 individuals
available for the study of a single species of gall wasp.
In many of the published studies on sex there were obvious confusions
of moral values, philosophic theory, and the scientific fact. In many of the
studies, the interest in classifying types of sexual behavior, in developing
broad generalizations, and in prescribing social procedures had far outrun
scientific determinations of the objective fact. T^e seemed ample oppor-
tunity for making a scientifically sounder study of human sex behavior.
The difficulties that might be encountered in undertaking such a study
promised to be greater than those involved in studying insects. The
gathering of the human data would involve the learning of new techniques
in which human personalities would be the obstacles to overcome and
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
io
human memories would be the instruments whose use we would have to
master. Analyses of the factors involved in the human behavior would be
more difficult, because the sources of variation in behavior are much more
complex than the sources of variation in structural characters in insects.
The complexities of such a study constituted a test of the capacities of our
science. However, enough success had been achieved in some of the pre-
vious sex studies to make it apparent that there were at least some people
who could be persuaded to contribute records of their activities; and we
had had enough contacts with persons of other social levels, in city com-
munities, in farm areas, in the backwoods, and in the remote mountain
areas from which we had collected gall wasps, to lead us to believe that
we might be able to secure cooperation from a wide variety of people. The
more recently published research provided a considerable basis for deciding
what should be included in a sex history, and our background in both
psychology and biology made it apparent that there were additional
matters worth investigation. A few of our closer friends gave encourage-
ment to the plan, and in July of 1938 we undertook to take the ffist his-
tories.
It was a slow matter learning how to secure subjects and learning what
interviewing techniques were most effective. Textbook prescriptions on
how to conduct an interview did not prove effective. Our experience in
teaching and in meeting people in the entomological field-work were better
guides toward winning confidences and ^securing honest answers. It took
six months to persuade the first sixty-two persons to contribute histories;
but our techniques were developing, and we began to secure subjects more
rapidly, as the following record will indicate:
Total Number of Histories
Year
Increment
Total
1938 (6 months)
62
62
1939
671
733
1940
959
1692
1941
843
2535
1942
816
3351
1943
1510
4861
1944
2490
7351
1945
2668
10019
1946
1467
( 11486
1947 (part)
728
12214
Our skills have been steadily developed, but the increasing ease with
which we have found people willing to contribute their histories is largely
the product of a spreading knowledge of the existence of the study among
tens of thousands of people, and of an increasing understanding of its
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
11
significance. For several years now it has been possible to find more his-
tories than we have been able to handle. The first histories came largely
from college students, because they were most available; but after the first
year there has been a constant expansion of the sample to cover all seg-
ments of the population. The question of securing a sufficiently large and a
well distributed sample, even with a hundred thousand histories as the
goal, is no longer a problem.
Six persons have had a share in the gathering of the histories. The record
is as follows;
Interviewers Involved
Interviewer
Histories taken
Percent of total histories
Kinsey
7036
57.6
Pomeroy
3808
31.2
Martin
890
7.3
Others
480
3.9
It has been necessary to develop techniques for coordinating the work
of those associated in the research, so that the data secured by the several
interviewers might fairly be added together; but this did not prove an
impossible undertaking (Chapter 3). It has also been necessary to test the
reliability of every other technique, at every point in the program (Chapter
3). During the first year the value of personal interviewing as opposed to
the questionnaire technique was subjected to some testing. Since the first
year, there has been an expansion of 22 per cent in the list of items covered
in each history. A system was developed for coding the data taken in an
interview. The basic problems of setting up a punch-card (Hollerith) sys-
tem for analyzing the data were worked out. We learned how to make
contacts that would bring histories from all segments of the population.
By the end of the first nine months the scope of each history, the form of
the record, and the techniques of the interview had been developed to very
nearly their present form. Since then, there have been few changes except
for the addition or deletion of some of the items included in a history.
Difficulties Encountered. Before undertaking the study it was understood
that gathering human behavioral data would involve social questions that
are not involved in the gathering of scientific material less directly affecting
the emotional lives of people. During the first year or two we were repeat-
edly warned of the dangers involved in the undertaking, and were threat-
ened with specific trouble. There was some organized opposition, chiefly
from a particular medical group. There were attempts by the medical asso-
ciation in one city to bring suit on the ground that we were practicing
medicine without a license, police interference in two or three cities, investi-
gation by a sheriff in one rural area, and attempts to persuade the Univer*
12
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
sity’s Administration to stop the study, or to prevent the publication of the
results, or to dismiss the senior author from his university connection, or
to establish a censorship over all publication emanating from the study.
Through all of this, the Administration of Indiana University stoutly
defended our right to do objectively scientific research, and to that defense
much of the success of this project is due. In one city, a school board,
whose president was a physician, dismissed a high school teacher because
he had cooperated in getting histories outside of the school but in the same
city. There were other threats of legal action, threats of political investiga-
tion, and threats of censorship, and for some years there was criticism from
scientific colleagues. It has been interesting to observe how far the ancient
traditions and social custom influence even persons who are trained as
scientists.
There seem to have been two chief sources of these objections. Some of
the psychologists contended that sexual behavior involved primarily psy-
chological problems, and that no biologist was qualified to make such a
study. Some of the sociologists felt that the problems were for the most
part social, and that neither a biologist nor a psychologist was the right
person to make a sex study. A few of the psychoanalysts felt that sexual
behavior could not properly be studied by anyone but a psychoanalyst.
One group of physicians objected that taking histories constituted clinical
practice, and that all such studies should be made by clinicians inside of
clinics.
r
The second type of objection came from some scientists who, while
admitting that sex studies of other animals were desirable, doubted whether
human studies could be put on the same objective bases as other scientific
studies. They objected that however well established the data might be, it
would be inexpedient to publish them, for society was not ready to face
such facts. Various persons, particularly leaders in sex education, con-
tended that human sex behavior was primarily a question of the emotions,
that no scientific study had ever succeeded in measuring the emotions,
and (anyway) that if it were possible to make such measurements the data
were too dangerous to publish, at least until all of the hundred thousand
histories were gathered. Well-meaning but still timid advisors suggested
that the fact of the existence of the study should be kept secret until there
was actual publication. Several scientists admitted that such a study might
be desirable, but more or less openly intimated that even scientists should
make moral evaluations as they interviewed subjects and analyzed data.
Several scientific friends urged that the study be confined to “normal”
sexual behavior, without raising any questions of the validity of the
generally accepted distinctions between normal and abnormal behavior.
None of these scientific rationalizations, however, was as interesting as
that of the hotel manager who refused to allow us to take histories —
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 13
“Because I do not intend that anyone should have his mind undressed in
my hotel.”
Withal, it is not certain that the persons who have objected to this
study have offered more of a hazard than the deserts and the mudholes,
the mountain walls and the chasms, and the sometimes hostile natives with
whom we had to deal in the course of the insect surveys. Never has the
interference materially slowed up the present study. There were always
persons who were willing to cooperate, as against the few who tried to
interfere. There have been 12,000 who have believed in the research
strongly enough to contribute their histories; and there are tens of thou-
sands more who are now ready to contribute, as soon as we have time to
interview them.
After the first few years the interference largely passed, and the over-all
history of the present study would be totally misunderstood if the emphasis
were placed anywhere except on the remarkable record of cooperation
from persons of every kind and from groups of every sort. For every
scientist who has obstructed, there have been hundreds of others, in every
field, who have helped. The list of consultants given above will indicate
how diverse a group of specialists has been interested.
Cooperating Groups. Scores of psychiatrists and physicians have
offered every sort of cooperation, including opportunities to lecture to
medical groups, and to discuss the data with them in seminars and in
clinical sessions ; help in securing Histories from medical students and from
medical faculties; help in securing histories from patients; the free use of
working space in medical school buildings and in private oflices; access
to library and laboratory facilities; and access to clinical records. It is
doubtful if the medical and psychiatric group has ever contributed
more generously to a study which was not primarily under medical
direction and which was not wholly in the field of medicine. The
history provides an outstanding instance of the sort of coordination of
clinical experience and research science which will become increasingly
necessary if either clinicians or research scientists are to gain any final
understanding of human problems.
Medical and psychiatric groups, from some of whose members his-
tories have been secured, include:
American Association of Marriage Counselors
Association for Psychoanalytic and Psychosomatic Medicine
Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital
Children’s Hospital, Philadelphia
Cornell University Medical College
Frederick Douglass Memorial Hospital, Philadelphia
Hahnemann Medical College
Indiana University Medical School
Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia
Margaret Sanger Research Bureau, New York
14
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Menninger Clinic, Topeka, Kansas
New York Academy of Medicine
New York Medical College
New York Psychoanalytic Society and Institute
New York State Psychiatric Hospital and Institute
New York University Medical School
Psychiatric Institute, Philadelphia
Private Psychiatric Clinic, Chicago
Psychiatric Clinic for Chicago Courts
Temple University Medical School
University of Illinois Medical College
University of Pennsylvania Medical School
U. S. Army Training Program in Neuropsychiatry
U. S. Public Health Service
Womans Medical College, Philadelphia
Yale University Medical School
Hundreds of educators have cooperated, at every level of the educational
system, from kindergarten schools, through public and private schools, to
colleges, and the professional schools. Persons who have been students at
528 American colleges and universities have contributed histories to the
record, The educational institutions which have been attended by these
persons include the following:
Anderson, Indiana, High School
Bradley Institute (Illinois)
* Brooklyn College
* Bryn Mawr College
Butler University
California, University of
Chicago Junior Colleges (var.)
* Chicago, University of
College of City of New York
* Columbia University
* Cornell University
Depauw University
Drexel Institute (Philadelphia)
Franklin College (Indiana)
* Fort Hays State College (Kansas)
* Harvard University
Hunter College (New York)
* Illinois, University of
* Indiana University
Michigan, University of
Minnesota, University of
* New York University
Northwestern University
Ohio State University
Pennsylvania State College
* Pennsylvania, University of
Princeton University
Peoria, Illinois: Junior and Senior High Schools
Pestalozzi School (Chicago)
Philadelphia Public High Schools
Private schools: in Chicago, Wilmington, and Philadelphia (in the Germantown
area, the Main-line area, and elsewhere)
* Institutions from which 100 or more subjects have contributed histories.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
15
* Purdue University
^ Swarthmore College
“ Temple University
Western Reserve University
Wisconsin, University of
Yale University
The administrations of penal and correctional institutions naturally
questioned whether their inmates would be disturbed if we attempted to
secure sex histories from them. However, a number of institutions have now
cooperated, and others have extended invitations to work with their popula-
tions. Institutional heads, judges of courts, parole and probation officers,
and police officers have expressed a considerable interest in the bearing of
this research on problems of law enforcement. The inmate populations in
these institutions have voluntarily cooperated in splendid fashion. From
this material we shall ultimately publish a volume on the legal aspects of
sexual behavior, and one on the problems of sexual adjustment within
institutions. In addition, these prison populations have augmented our
understanding of economically and educationally lower social levels, and
of the broken marriages which are in the histories of a high proportion of
the penal inmates. Groups from which histories have been secured include:
Central States Association of Parole and Probation Officers
Chicago : City Courts
Chicago : Randall House for Negro Boys
Cleveland : A suburban Court group
Delaware : Kruse School for Negro Girls
Indiana : State Penal Farm ^
Indiana: State Woman's Prison
Indianapolis: Board of Public Safety
Kansas : State Police
National Association of Superintendents of Women’s Correctional Institutions
New York City: Courts
New York City: Florence Crittenton Home
New York City: Police Commissioner
New York State: Woman’s Reformatory
Ohio : Bureau of Juvenile Research
Philadelphia: Probation officers
South Bend, Indiana: Courts
Other institutions, neither penal nor correctional, from which individuals
have contributed histories include:
Michigan: State Training School (for feeble-minded) at Coldwater
Mishawaka, Indiana: cSldren’s Home
Philadelphia: Salvation Army Home for Children
Philadelphia: Salvation Army Industrial Home
Philadelphia: Salvation Army Home for Unmarried Mothers
Philadelphia: Sheltering Arms, Home for Unmarried Mothers
St. Joseph County, Indiana: Department of Public Welfare
Persons not connected with any kind of institution have been more
difficult to contact. Nevertheless, it has been possible to stir up considerable
community interest in the study, and friends who tell their friends develop
2
16
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
a geometrically expanding network of contacts which ultimately provide a
broad sample of any community. The histories of such persons constitute
a major source of the data used in this study. Individuals who have con-
tributed histories have been associated with the following social or civic
organizations:
American Museum of Natural History: Staff
Church Groups: Bloomington (Indiana), Nicodemus (Kansas), Chicago, Phila-
delphia, Edinburg (Indiana)
Conscientious Objectors : Philadelphia (3 groups), Bloomington
Family Groups: Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Bloomington
Hitch-hikers
Homosexual Communities : Cliicago, New York, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, St. Louis
Individual Histories : From all the communities in which we have worked
Journalists, Editorial, and Publishing Groups: Philadelphia, New York
Marriage Counseling Groups: New York, Philadelphia, Cleveland, State College
(Pennsylvania)
Men’s Service Clubs : Elkhart (Indiana)
Negro Lower Level Communities : Chicago, Indianapolis, Gary (Indiana)
Negro Professional and Middle Class Communities: Chicago, Columbus (Ohio),
Philadelphia, Gary (Indiana), Hill City (Kansas), Nicodemus (Kansas), Peoria
(Illinois)
Nurses’ Groups: Philadelphia
N. Y. A. : Bloomington (Indiana)
Parent-Teacher Groups in Private Schools: Chicago, Philadelphia, Wilmington
Parent-Teat:her Groups in Public Schools: Anderson (Indiana), Edinburg (Indiana),
Philadelphia, Peoria (Illinois)
Physicians’ Patients: New York, Chicago, Philadelphia
Probation, Parole, and Court Groups: Pliiladelphia, Cleveland, Chicago, South
Bend (Indiana) ^
Professional Groups (various): New York, Chicago, Philadelphia
Salvation Army, Staff Workers and Clients: New York, Philadelphia, Chicago
Sex Education Groups: Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland
Social Worker Groups: Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, Southern Indiana,
South Bend (Indiana), Cleveland
Travelers on Trains
Underworld Communities: Chicago, Peoria (Illinois), Indianapolis, New York
City, Gary (Indiana)
Umversity Woman’s Group, AAUW : Wilmington (Delaware)
White, Lower Level Communities: Chicago, Peoria (Illinois)
White, Middle Class, and Upper Level Communities: Chicago, New York, Phila-
delphia, Bloomington, South Bend, Elkhart (Indiana), Anderson (Indiana)
Wistar Institute, Philadelphia
Y. M. C. A.: Peoria (Illinois), Indianapolis, Elkhart (Indiana)
Y. W. C. A.: Anderson (Indiana), Philadelphia, Chicago
Before undertaking this research, we had known something of people
as they appear to their friends and to their neighbors ; but now we have had
a chance to learn more about them. Understanding something of their
satisfactions and heartaches, and the backgrounds of their lives, has
increased our sympathetic acceptance of people as they are.
THE TAXONOMIC APPROACH
Since the technique of this research has been taxonomic, a word needs
to be said about the taxonomic method.
fflSTORICAL INTRODUCTION
17
In Biology. Taxonomy is a development of systematic botany and
systematic zoology. Historically, these are the oldest of the biologic
sciences. Their original functions were those of naming, describing, and
classifying species and the higher categories. Modern taxonomy still has
those same functions, but its techniques are very different (Ahlstrom 1937,
Crampton 1925, Dice 1932, Dobzhansky 1937, 1941, Erickson 1941, Hile
1937, Hubbs and Miller 1942, Hubbs and Johnson 1943, Huxley 1940,
Kinsey 1942, Mayr 1942, Miller 1941). Since the differences between the
present study and previous work on human sex behavior are essentially
the same as the differences between modern taxonomy and the older sys-
tematics, it will be profitable to compare the two.
Modern taxonomy is the product of an increasing awareness among
biologists of the uniqueness of individuals, and of the wide range of varia-
tion which may occur in any population of individuals. The taxonomist is,
therefore, primarily concerned with the measurement of variation in series
of individuals which stand as representatives of the species in which he is
interested.
In order to have his sample representative the taxonomist must deal
with much larger series than the older systematist ever thought of handling.
Where the systematist used a single individual or a few individuals as the
bases of his description and of his understanding of a species, the taxono-
mist undertakes population sampling on such a scale as may involve
hundreds of individuals from each locality, and tens of thousands of
individuals from the species as a whole. If individuals are collected in a
fashion which eliminates all bias in their choosing, and in a fashion which
includes material from every type of habitat and from the whole range of
the species, it should be possible to secure a sample which, after measure-
ment and classification, will indicate the frequency with which each type
of variant occurs in each local population, or in the species as a whole. If
the sample is adequate, the generahzations should apply not only to the
individuals which were actually measured, but to those which were never
collected and which were never measured at all. Obviously, the correctness
of such an extension of the observed data depends upon the size of the
sample, and upon the quality of the sample ; and the capacity of the taxono-
mist is to be measured by the skill he demonstrates in choosing and securing
that sample. The next two chapters will contain a description of the tech-
niques by which the material for the present study has been obtained.
Beyond describing the groups involved, the taxonomist may also analyze
some of the factors which account for differences between the individuals
and between the populations of individuals which he is studying. These
analyses depend upon comparisons of groups with backgrounds which are
similar, except for some one item which may be identified as the source of
the differences between the groups. This is the sort of analysis which an
18
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
experimentalist makes when he compares an operated and a control group
of animals. The experimentalist creates the backgrounds and controls the
environmental factors wliich are the suspected agents of his results. The
taxonomist finds the different backgrounds where they are already estab-
lished in nature and, if his investigation is accurate, can reason as the
experimentalist does about causal factors.
Descriptive taxonomy provides an over-all survey; the experimental
techniques are better suited to the examination of ultimate details. The
taxonomist charts the paths which specialists may subsequently follow. Il
is the function of the taxonomist to show the magnitude of the whole
group which he has studied, so specialists will know how large an order
must be satisfied if their generalizations are to apply to any significant
portion of that group.
In Applied and Social Sciences. Medicine, psychiatry, psychology, so-
ciology, economics, anthropology, and the other social sciences are,
after all, faced with the same problems which have confronted biologists
in their attempts to describe and classify basic phenomena. They, similarly,
need to secure such an over-all understanding of their one, highly variable
animal, the human, as will ^‘show the magnitude of the whole group'’ and
make it clear “how large an order must be satisfied if their generalizations
are to apply to any significant portion of that group.”
Unfortunately, it has not always beeq, realized that problems in social
fields involve the understanding of a whole species. Much of the publica-
tion in these fields is concerned with observations on a few individuals
from whom generalizations are too often extended to any and to all other
segments of the population. Observations on children, on senescent adults,
on social groups, on gangs, or on whole towns are usually observations on
particular groups, although they are presented as typical of life in all of
America. Even when the data are experimentally derived, as in medicine
and more recently in psychology, the problem of understanding the whole
of the human species is still present. Experiments, whether operations,
drug injections, physiologic tests, or psychologic manipulations, are usually
limited to a few individuals when, in actuality, they should include persons
of both sexes, of all ages, and from all sorts of socio-economic, educational,
and religious backgrounds, if the conclusions are to be applied to the
human species in general.
College students, of college age, mostly from middle-class and urban
homes — often with the sex unrecorded — are the subjects for a high pro-
portion of the observations and experiments of academic investigators.
No caution is given the reader that individuals of other ages, with differ-
ent educational backgrounds and different social origins, might react
differently to the same sorts of experimental situations. Even among
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 19
psychologists, the apparatus used in the experiment may be chosen with
more care than the human subjects of the investigation.
In the medical, psychologic, and social sciences, there are a number of
studies of single individuals who are described in elaborate detail (c,g.,
Allport 1942, Bios 1941, Brown 1937, Carlson 1941, Conwell 1937, Hillyer
1927, Hoopes 1939, ^‘Inmate” 1932, Johnson 1930, Judge Baker Fnd. 1922,
Karpman 1935, 1944, Kellogg 1933, Prince 1905, Rogers 1942, Shaw 1930,
Thomas and Znaniecki 1918-1920, Wright 1945). It is implied that the
observations or the therapeutic techniques used in the one case are appli-
cable to other individuals in the general population. Psychiatrists and
psychoanalysts have been particularly involved in such publication, and
the anthropologists have led in this field (c.g.. Barton 1938, Beers 1908,
Dyk 1938, Ford 1941, Hatt 1931, Landes 1938, Linderman 1930, 1932,
McGraw 1935, Radin 1920, 1926, Simmons 1942, Spott and Kroeber 1942,
Underhill 1936, Washbourne 1940, etc.). The idea is old. Linnaeus extolled
the lone moss which was worth a life-time of study, and Tennyson thought
of the flower in the crannied wall as the key to the secrets of the universe.
Such detailed studies of single individuals have often represented a certain
high degree of industry and scholarship, but they are dangerous as sources
of generalizations about larger segments of the population: Like descrip-
tive systeraatics at its worst, such detailed studies of individual cases are
the antitheses of analyses based on large and statistically well selected
samples of the sort the modern Jaxonomist employs.
There are sociologic studies (e.g,, Burgess and Cottrell 1939), which
appear statistical because they carefully define the group which was studied
without, however, making any effort to select a sample which would be
homogeneous and representative of any larger portion of the total popu-
lation. Obviously, conclusions based on such studies are applicable only
to the particular sample which was available to the particular investigator,
and it is practically certain that no one will ever again meet, at any other
time, in any other place, another group of persons similarly constituted.
Sometimes social scientists hobnob as tourists in some social milieu
sufficiently removed from their own to make it possible for them to
acquire ‘‘impressions” and “hunches” about “social patterns” and “moti-
vations of behavior” in whole cultures. This method has the merit of
requiring a minimum of time — much less than the public opinion polls or
the taxonomists need for arriving at their generalizations. Nevertheless, to
some students the day seems overdue when scientists studying human
material will forsake barbershop techniques and attempt to secure some
taxonomic understanding of the human population.
Some persons are appalled at the idea of having to undertake a large-
scale coverage of thousands of individual cases before they are allowed to
generalize about the whole. Contacts with the statistics of small samples
20
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
have provided rationalizations for some of this inertia ; but no statistical
techniques can make a small sample represent any type of individual which
was not present in the original body of data.
In the past dozen years, economic surveys, agricultural surveys, the
public opinion polls, and a research group in the Census Bureau (McNemar
1940, 1946, Gallup and Rae 1940, Blankenship 1943, Gallup 1944, Cantril
1944) have shown the way in which a human population must be analyzed
before there can be any understanding of any large segment of that
population. Developed without benefit of the biologists’ experience with
taxonomy, the public opinion techniques are, nevertheless, an illustration
of taxonomic procedure. During the recent war, problems of sampling in
the field of social problems received increased attention from the statisti-
cians and the biostatisticians. Public health surveys are now utilizing
modern methods of sampling. With increasing frequency the business world
has learned to depend upon analyses of consumer reactions in the com-
mercial field. The predictions in such surveys usually lie within 1 to 5 per
cent of the subsequent performance (Katz 1941, Gallup 1944). In contrast,
we should guess that many of the generalizations coming from the tradi-
tional studies in the social sciences might prove erroneous in something
between 20 artd 90 per cent of the cases, if one attempted to apply them to
any considerable portion of the population. It is unfortunate that the
products of academic studies are not more often put to the dollars and
cents tests which have provided the ip^centives for increasingly better
techniques in economic and public opinion surveying.
Statistical Basis. Modern taxonomy is statistical in its approach. In
many quarters there is an honest distrust of sampling techniques because
there is a distrust of all statistical procedures. There is a widespread feel-
ing that statistics are cold and that they cannot measure human emotions
which, after all, are involved in all sexual activities as well as in many other
human problems. It is objected that statistics can deal with incidences
and frequencies and provide means for calculating average individuals,
but that average individuals do not reaUy exist, and that measurements of
such hypothetic individuals provide no insight into the particular persons
with whom the clinician must deal. Such objections involve, however, a
misunderstanding of the utility of a statistical approach. It is, precisely,
the function of a population analysis to help in the understanding of par-
ticular individuals by showing their relation to the remainder of the group.
Given the range of variation, the mode, the mean, the median, and the
shape of the frequency distribution for the whole group, the clinician can
determine the averageness or uniqueness of any particular person, and
comprehend the extent to which generalizations developed for the whole
group may be applied to any particular case (see Clinical Tables, Chapter
23). Without such a background, each individual becomes unique and
unexplainable except through an elaborate investigation of him as an
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
21
isolated entity. On the other hand, if there are adequate data on the group,
a major portion of the work involved in understanding a particular indi-
vidual is thereby eliminated, even though it is true that he may still be
so unique that he will need some special study.
The possession of some “statistical sense” would seem to be a funda-
mental requirement for anyone attempting to investigate any species, in-
cluding the human. By “statistical sense” we refer to one’s capacity to dis-
tinguish the specific from the universal and to recognize the difference be-
tween a phenomenon which is common and one which is rare. One shows
a statistical sense when he is interested in knowing how often a particular
thing is true, and how often something different might be so — in short,
what the incidence of each variant is in the population as a whole. The
investigator who is satisfied to report a single set of observations is lacking
in a statistical sense. The clinician who has made a dozen tests of a partic-
ular therapeutic technique, and reports them as though they were appli-
cable to anybody and everybody, is no scientist, for he lacks a statistical
sense. Every scientist needs to cultivate his ability to distinguish between
facts that are known to be true only for particular individuals, and facts
which are known in such variety, for so many different kinds of individuals,
that they may be added up to an understanding of a whole population.
The present study should provide an instance of the taxonomic method
applied to a problem that lies primarily in the field of human behavior
and sociology. If the results of this investigation seem significant, the study
will have been justified not only because of its findings but, what may prove
to be of as much import, because of its demonstration of a method that
can be used in other fields of research on human problems.
STATUS OF PREVIOUS SEX STUDIES
Although we have said that scientists- have largely avoided investigations
of human sexuality, leaving this one of the most poorly explored fields in
biology, psychology, or sociology, it should be emphasized that there is no
aspect of human behavior about which there has been more thought,
more talk, and more books written. From the dawn of human history,
from the drawings left by primitive peoples, on through the developments
of all civilizations, ancient, classic. Oriental, medieval, and modern, men
have left a record of their sexual activities and their thinking about sex.
The printed literature is tremendous, and the other material is inex-
haustible. For bulk, the literature cannot be surpassed in many other fields ;
for scholarship, esthetic merit, or scientific validity it is of such mixed
quality that it is difficult to separate the kernel from the chaff, and still
more difficult to maintain any perspective during its perusal. It is, at once,
an interesting reflection of man’s absorbing interest in sex, and his astound-
ing ignorance of it; his desire to know and his unwillingness to face the
facts; his respect for an objective, scientific approach to the problems
22
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
involved, and his overwhelming urge to be poetic, pornographic, literary,
philosophic, traditional, and moral. Fortunately the scientific observer is
not called upon to judge the merits of these diverse and contradictory
approaches. All of them give evidence of what people think and do sexually,
and that is sufficient to make them scientifically significant.
The data on most physiologic functions of the human animal are, for
the most part, to be found in the scientific treatises and journal articles
published by physiologists. In contrast, the data on sex are spread through
every field of history, literature, art, science, the social sciences, philosophy,
religion, and the academically not respectable but still important materials
of pornography. These last, as any archeologist or anthropologist well
knows, may be of considerable importance in the interpretation of a
human culture. There is a surprisingly large body of unpublished manu-
script material in this field. A sex library, and any scholarly review of it,
would have to cover material drawn from practically all of the following
fields:
Biology
Anatomy
Embryology
Physiology
Endocrinology
Genetics
Taxonomic method
Human evolution
Biostatistics
Psychology
General
Experimental
Clinical
Abnormal
Social
Child and adolescent
Comparative (anthropoids and lower
mammals)
Sociology
General
Criminology
Penology
Special problems
Marriage and the family
Anthropology
Cultural
Physical
Ethnography
Archeology
Classical
Medicine
Obstetrics
Gynecology
Pediatrics
Clinical endocrinology
Urology
Fertility and sterility
Contraception
Pharmacology
Public health
Hygiene
Social hygiene
Psychiatry
Psychoanalysis
Marriage Counseling
Modern marriage manuals
^ Classic manuals
Child Development
Personnel Programs
Public Opinion Surveying
Radio Programs
Philosophy
Ethics
Religion
Creeds
Moral philosophy
Sex cults
History of religions
Education
Child development
Sex education
History
Law
Legal procedure
Criminal law
Marriage law
Paternity law
History of law
Law Enforcement
Police
Parole and probation
Censorship
Military law
Institutional management
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
23
Literature
Fiction
Essays
Poetry
Classical, of all cultures
Biographies
Travel
Drama
Journalistic, newspapers and mag-
azines
Propaganda
Songs and ballads
Folklore
Linguistics
Slangs and argots
Arts
Graphic
Sculpture
Photography
Moving pictures
Music
Dance
Stage
Erotica, of Modern, Medieval, Classic,
and Ancient Cultures
Nude art
Sculpture
Art models
Photographic materials
Amateur drawings, stories, etc.
Diaries
Cartoons
Moving pictures
China and pottery
Utensils
Household implements
Architectural designs
Symbolism
Mjasic
Songs and ballads
Limericks
Wall inscriptions
Vocabularies
Literature
Heterosexual
Homosexual
Flagellation, sadism, masochism
Torture
Religious persecution
Corporal punishment
Pseudo-psychologic
Pseudo-anthropologic
Love story magazines
True confession magazines
Physical culture magazines
Nudist magazines
Fetish magazines
Scandal sheets .
Advertising materials
Fetishistic objects
Materials on sex cults
Obviously, it is impossible in any single volume to summarize the infor-
mation contained in as diverse a body of material as is outlined above.
Since the present volume is a taxonomic study of the frequencies and
sources of sexual outlet among American males, we shall confine our
review to those previous American studies which are (1) scientific, (2)
based on more or less complete case histories, (3) based on series of at least
some size, (4) involving a systematic coverage of approximately the same
items on each subject, and (5) statistical in treatment. Many other studies
which are not taxonomic have been important for comparison with our
data, and they are cited throughout the present volume and listed in the
Bibliography at the end of this book. There are only 19 studies of sex
behavior (23 titles) which are in any sense taxonomic. They are:
1. Achilles, P. S. 1923. The effectiveness of certain social hygiene literature. New York,
Amer. Soc. Hyg. Assoc., pp. 116.
A group-administered questionnaire study of 1449 males and 483 females, made
by a psychologist. All of the subjects were from the New York City area, including
high school and college students and some lower middle-class and lower level
groups, mostly of yoynger individuals, with a few of them Negro. The study was
primarily concerned with the effectiveness of certain social hygiene literature in
disseminating information about venereal disease, but some of the questions con-
cerned the sex experiences of the subjects. The population is broader than in most
studies, but not broken up into homogeneous groups for analyses. The conclusions.
24
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
therefore, are not applicable to the whole Ajnerican population, nor to any particular
segment of it. The data are merely tabulated.
2. Bromley, D. D., and Britten, F. H. 1938. Youth and sex. A study of BOO college
students. New York and London, Harper and Bros., pp. XIII + 30:).
A questionnaire and interview study of 1364 college students, made by two
women with journalistic backgrounds. Forty-three per cent of the subjects were male,
57 per cent female. Questionnaires were filled out by students attending 46 colleges,
spread throughout the United States, and the authors visited 15 colleges to supple-
ment their questionnaires with partial and not so complete interviews. The con-
tributors may have represented a somewhat select portion of each student body:
only one-fifth of the questionnaires which were distributed were filled in, and no
device was used to assure a good sample. The statistical treatment of the data is
scant, arriving at totals and averages, with no breakdown ol the sample for cor-
relations. The data on petting and pre-marital intercourse agree fairly well with
our own for college groups. On the other hand, the authors' suggestion (p. 27) that
the conclusions may be safely transferred to the non-college segments of the pop-
ulation, because college students are the leaders and set the behavior patterns for
the rest of the population, is incorrect (Chapter 10 in present volume). The males
in the study evidently balked at telling the women investigators about their mastur-
batory and homosexual experiences, for the incidence figures on those points are
lower than in any other published investigation.
3. Davis, K. B. 1929. Factors in the sex life of twenty-two hundred women. New
York and London, Harper and Bros., pp. XX -f 430.
A questionnaire study made by an experienced social worker and her collabo-
rators, located in the New York City area. The 2200 women subjects represented
the select segment which answered a questionnaire that was originally mailed to
20,000 persons. The sample was confined to “normal” women of good standing m
their communities, most of them being college and club women. A high percentage
of them were graduates of Eastern women’s colleges. The ages ranged mostly
between 25 and 55. Many of the women weje teachers. The sample was, theiefoie,
not broad, but neither was it strictly held to the group which was best represented
in the study. Only a portion of the life history was covered. The treatment of the
data is simple but statistical.
4. Dickinson, R. L., and Beam, L. 1931. A thousand marriages. Baltimore, Williams
and Wilkins Co., pp. XXV -f 482.
Dickinson, R. L., and Beam, L. 1934. The single woman. Baltimore, Williams and
Wilkins Co., pp. XIX + 469.
Studies based on a gynecologist’s half century of experience in private practice,
dealing with over 5000 female patients from the New York City area. Publications
of the National Committee on Maternal Health. The findings of the physical e.xam-
inations are systematic, particularly as brought together in the same author’s
Human Sex Anatomy (1933, Baltimore, Williams and Wilkins Co., pp. XIII -f 145
175 figs.). The data on sexual behavior vary from fairly complete life histories
to single items. Most of the women came from middle-class or upper level homes.
All age groups (except children) were included; and some of the cases were followed
for scores of years. These pioneer studies have had considerable influence on later
work, particularly among physicians, gynecologists, marriage counselors, students
of fertility, and other climeal groups. There are only occasional tabulations of data,
and the calculations of averages are sometimes inaccurate. There is no selection
of the sample, and there are no analyses of the populations on which the various tab-
ulations are based. The findings, therefore, cannot be transferred to other segments
of the population.
5. Exner, M. J. 1915. Problems and principles of sex education. A study of 948 college
men. New York, Association Press, pp. 39.
Apparently the pioneer attempt to secure statistical data on American sexual
behavior. The author, a physician, was secretary of the Student Department of the
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
25
International Committee of the Y.M.C.A. A questionnaire study in which part
of the questionnaires were group administered and part sent by mail. Answers
were secured on a limited number of questions from 948 male students in colleges
scattered widely over the United States. The treatment is simple tabulation. Since
the population is homogeneously college male, the data should have been significant ;
but because of the inadequacies of questionnaires the incidence figures for various
sexual activities are much too low. The most notable aspect of the study was the
‘TOO per cent” sample secured by getting records from every one of the 673 males
in a series of groups, this series providing material for comparison with the data
secured from those in the remainder of the sample.
6. Finger, F. W. 1947. Sex beliefs and practices among male college students. J. Abn.
Soc. Psych. 42:57-67.
An interesting and profitable questionnaire study of 111 males, all of whom
were college students in three successive classes in advanced psychology. The
author, as the instructor in the course, had previously given lectures to the group
on psychological processes in general and on emotional behavior and on certain
aspects of sex behavior in particular. All but ten of the subjects were premedical
students. The group, in consequence, was uniquely prepared for cooperating in
such a study, and this vitiates the author’s contention that his results justify ques-
tionnaire studies as against more costly personal interview studies. It is probable
that the same methods applied to college students who did not have such a prepa-
ration in biology and psychology would not have given comparable results, and
the method would have been quite unworkable with most of the population that
never goes to college. Of the 138 students to whom questionnaires were given,
111 (81%) made returns. Sixty of the students were given a duplicate questionnaire
to fill out nine days later in an attempt to test the validity of the. data. The study
is unique among previous surveys of American sexual behavior in securing data on
the incidence of the homosexual which are comparable to those reported in the
present volume. Similarly, the data on masturbation and on heterosexual coitus
compare well with those obtained by other investigators in this field. Since the
population was homogeneous in* its sex, its racial constitution, its age, marital
status, and educational level, the data may be taken as indicative of what can be
expected from similar groups.
7. Hamilton, G. V. 1929. A research in marriage. New York, A. and C. Boni, pp.
XUI + 570.
Hamilton, G. V., and MacGowan, K. 1929. What is wrong with marriage. New
York, A. and C. Boni, pp. XXI + 319.
A formalized interview study by a New York City psychiatrist whose earlier
research experience had included studies of sexual behavior among apes. The project
was undertaken at the suggestion and with the support of the National Research
Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex. The study was ba^ed on
100 married females and 100 married males. Of this number 55 couples represented
pairs of spouses, but no correlations of data were made on these pairs. The pop-
ulation was not selected to represent any particular segment of society, and its
constitution is not even described in the original report. Nearly all of the subjects
were college graduates, most of them nearer 30 and under 40 years of age, most of
them the psychiatrist’s patients or their friends, and most of them from the New
York City area. An undue number (21%) of the subjects had been upset enough to
have needed psychiatric help prior to their participation in the study. The data were
obtained by personal “interviews” where the questions were typed on a card and
handed without further discussion to the subject. The subject gave his answers orally,
and they were recorded verbatim, without further questioning from the interviewer.
There was considerable attention given to standardizing the questions and the inter-
view, but none to standardizing the population, apparently on the assumption that
if one standardizes one end of an experiment it does not matter what one throws
in at the other end. The treatment involved simple tabulation and comparisons of
male and female data. The small size of the sample also limits its usefulness, but
26
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
there is a definitely systematic coverage of a large number of sexual items. The
findings more or less match our own for white, married, college-bred, urban males
between 30 and 35 years of age.
8. Hohman, L. B. and SchafFner, B. 1947. The sex life of unmarried men. Anier. J. Soc.
52:501-507.
A study made by two psychiatrists on the basis of the interviews which they had
with 4600 selectees at induction centers in New York City, upper New York State,
and Baltimore during the recent war. Because of the very limited time available for
each interview, the questions were few and, as pointed out in the report, not always
well framed. The age, marital status, religious connections, educational level, and
economic status of each individual were secured and the data on sexual activity
were correlated with these background factors. A chief source of error was the fact
that only two-way correlations were made. The data on the sexual activities of the
several religious groups, for instance, probably would have led to different con-
clusions if the comparisons had been confined to persons of the same educational
level, and if the devoutness of the religious connections had been taken into account.
In all the other comparisons the results are badly distorted by the failure to take
educational levels into account. The statements made concerning the Negroes are
unwarranted, for that reason. The data on pre-marital intercourse are misleading
because they represent ogives instead of the accumulative incidence curves (Chapter
3) that are needed to reach the conclusions which the authors are trying to make here.
At several points in regard to the Negro histories, in regard to the high
incidence of masturbation among adult males, etc.) the authors’ own subjective
responses become evident. They arrive at an incidence figure for the homosexual,
as they define it, of 0.36 per cent and express the opinion that this figure is reliable
“because we were specifically instructed by mobilization medical standards to ex-
clude homosexuals.” They seem to have no realization of the fact tliat the condi-
tions under which three- to five-minute interviews were held in army induction
centers were not conducive to winning admissions of socially taboo behavior, espe-
cially when the men had been irformed beforehand that they would be puni.shed by
being exduded from the Armed Forces if they did admit such behavior. For our
own data on the incidence of the homosexual in the sort of group which was
involved here, see Chapter 21.
9. Hughes, Ww L. 1926. Sex experiences of boyhood. J. Soc. Hyg. 12:262-273.
A group-administered questionnaire study of 1029 presumably unmarried males
ranging for the most part between 15 and 20 years of age. The author w^s a biologist
serving as a state health officer in North Carolina, and the sample represented a
fair cross-section of both rural and urban populations of boys in high school, in
grade school, and in employment in the mills of that state. Some comparisons of
high school and mill boys were made with the caution that the sample was too small
to warrant extended conclusions. Thus the set-up of the analyses was better than
usual, but the dependence on the questionnaire was not good, and the choice of the
questions was totally inadequate. Masturbation and nocturnal emissions were the
only two, out of six possible sources of outlet, which were investigated ; and at every
point the study is loaded with moral evaluations (^.^., “Has anyone ever tried to
give you the mistaken idea that sex intercourse is necessaiy for the health of the
young man?”).
I'O, Landis, C., «t al. 1940. Sex in development. A study of the growth and development
of the emotional and sexual aspects of personality together with physiological,
anatomical, and medical information on a group of 153 normal women and 142
female psychiatric patients. New York and London, Paul B. Hoeber,pp. XX 4- 329.
A study of approximately 300 females, personally interviewed by Mrs. Agnes T.
Landis, the interviews standardized with formal questions which were carefully
worded on the interviewing sheets. The study was supported by the National
Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex. Approximately
half of the sample was drawn from patients at the New York State" Psychiatnc
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
27
Institute and Hospital; the other half was obtained largely from a Y.W.C.A.
and a Y.W.H.A. group. The ages lay between 18 and 25 years in 54 per cent of
the sample; 54 per cent of the girls were Jewish, and 71 per cent had gone into high
school but not beyond. The sample was largely from a particular sort of group but,
unfortunately, it was not strictly confined to that group. The conclusions, conse-
quently, are not transferable to the population as a whole, nor to a particular age,
educational level, or religious group. After the breakdown for analyses, many of
the ultimate groups contained only one or two to half a dozen individuals, and the
statistical treatment is more elaborate than such small samples warrant. Practical
experience shows that an additional three or four cases, or a dozen additional cases
added to such small groups could have changed the conclusions which were drawn
from such small samples.
11. Landis, C., and Holies, M. M. 1942. Personality and sexuality of the physically
handicapped woman. New York and London, Paul B. Hoeber, pp. XII + 171.
An interview study of 100 handicapped females (spastics, orthopedics, cardiacs,
and epileptics), interviewed in the same way as in the previous study (Landis 1940),
the interviewing done by Dr. Marjorie Holies. The study was supported by the
National Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex. The
sample was drawn from a group of New York City institutions; most of the girls
were between 18 and 25 years of age; half of them were Catholic. The statistical
treatment is too detailed and open to much the same objections as in the previous
Landis study {q.v. above).
12. Merrill, L. 1918. A summaiy of findings in a study of sexualism among a group of
one hundred delinquent boys. J. Juv. Res. 3 :25 5-267.
Data gathered by a probation officer who interviewed a hundred boys who were
passing through a Juvenile Court in Seattle. The boys ranged in age between 8 and
18, and most of them probably came from lower social levels, as most court cases
do. It is unfortunate that the social backgrounds were not held constant for the
studied group, so the conclusion% could have been utilized with more certainty.
It is not entirely clear how systematically the sex items were covered on each history.
The study is notable because it published the most definite record of pre-adolescent
orgasm (for 6 boys in self masturbation), and gave the highest recorded incidence
figures (31%) for younger boys involved with oral techniques in homosexual con-
tacts. On both of these points, our own data substantiate those given by Merrill.
13. Pearl, R. 1925. The biology of population growth. New York, Alfred A. Knopf,
pp. XIV 4- 260 (especially pp. 178-207).
A nicely analyzed study by a biostatistician using hospital data on 257 older,
married, white males, most of them over 55 years of age. They had all undergone
prostatic operation. Mailed questionnaires brought the information on frequencies
of marital intercourse, which are the only sexual data actually given. The subjects
may have come from the Baltimore area, or from elsewhere. The population is
analyzed with a simultaneous age and occupational breakdown, which is instruc-
tive. On the whole, the samples in each ultimate breakdown are too small, but the
age trends seem correct. Unfortunately, educational levels were not used in the
calculations, and our present data show that Pearl’s comparisons of rural and urban
histories would have led to totally different conclusions if he had taken educational
levels into account.
14. Peck, M. W., and Wells, F. L. 1923. On the psycho-sexuality of college graduate
men. Ment. Hyg. 7:697-714.
Peck, M. W., and Wells, F. L. 1925. Further studies in the psycho-sexuality of
college graduate men. Ment. Hyg. 9 : 502-520.
A directed questionnaire study of about 550 men with college backgrounds, the
study made by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, with support from the National
Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex. The study was
made in the Boston area. Most of the subjects were between 21 and 30 years of age.
Published Studies on Sex
Bromley-Bntten 1938 Journalism Qst’naire, & par- U. S., wide 592 772 1364 Students m 46 Col- 40 = 7.7% Sex Male and female
tial interview leges ( -i- 1 5 ‘^) college students
Arranged chronologically
30
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The treatment was simple tabulation with no breakdown of the population; but
since the study was confined to the one sort of group the generalizations may be
extended to other college groups with a minimum possibility of error. The sex
questions were limited to about 30 items, but as far as they go, the findings are
close to those obtained in our own study. The second part of the study was expanded
with about 80 more questions concerning the personality traits of the subjects, their
recreational interests, etc.; but this added nothing to an understanding of the
sexual data in the study.
15. Peterson, K. M. 1938. Early sex information and its influence on later sex concepts.
Unpublished manuscript in Library of University of Colo., pp. 136.
A supervised questionnaire survey of 419 males who were still in college. The
geographic locations of the colleges are not mentioned, but they were probably in
Middle Western and Rocky Mountain areas. There is a simple tabulation of the
data, most of which concern sex education, but there is some valuable information
on adolescent developments and on later, overt experiences in sex. Some of the
data were subsequently used in KirkendalFs volume on Sex Adjustments of Young
Men (Kirkendall 1940). Since the population was uniformly male, of college
level, and of college age, the data are transferable to other college male groups.
The results, however, are not sufiScient, because of the relative inefiectiveness of
questionnaire studies.
16. Ramsey, G. V. 1943, The sex information of younger boys. Amer. J. Orthopsy-
chiatry 13:347-352.
Ramsey, G, V. 1943. The sexual development of boys. Amer. J. Psych. 56:217-23 4
Studies of 291 pre-adolescent and younger adolescent males, representing all of
the boys (and some others) in a seventh and eighth grade group in a medium-large
city in^ Illinois. Based on personal interviews which were coordinated with the list
of questions and the techniques of the present study. The study is particularly
valuable because of the age period covered, and further significant because of its
hundred percent sample. The conclusions are not extensible to other groups of
particular social levels, but the unselected saftiple is probably an approximation to
the sort of group that occurs in any middle class junior high school in a medium-
large city of the Middle West.
17. Strakosch, F. M. 1934. Factors in the sex life of seven himdred psychopathic
women. Utica, N. Y., State Hospitals Press, pp. 102.
A doctor’s thesis in psychology, based on the accumulated case history records
in the New York State Psychiatric Institute and Hospital, in New York City. The
data had been gathered by a number of psychiatrists, with possible variations in
standards of recording. All of the 700 women were psychopathic. They represented
a wide range of ages, and a variety of educational and social levels. There are tab-
ulations and some simple but sometimes erroneous statistical treatments of the
data, and comparisons of each item with similar calculations in the studies by
Davis (1929), Hamilton (1929), and Dickinson and Beam (1931, 1934). These com-
parisons are intended to show the similarities and differences between psychopathic
and normal women. However, all of the other studies dealt with populations
that were from more or less exclusively upper educational and social levels, and
the Strakosch sample came from such different social levels that all comparisons in
this study are invalid (see Chapter 10).
18. Taylor, W. S. 1933. A critique of sublimation in males: A study of 40 superior
single men. Genet. Psych. Monogr. 13 (1): 1-1 15.
The sample is fairly homogeneous. It is made up of single males, mostly between
21 and 30 years of age, who were for the most part superior graduate students
from universities in Eastern Massachusetts. Because of the uniformity of the
population, the results are better than such a small sample might be expected to
give. The incidence and frequency data are tabulated and totalled, without further
statistical analyses.
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 31
19. Terman, L. M., et al. 1938. Psychological factors in marital happiness. New York
and London, McGraw Hill Book Co., pp. XIV -h 474.
A group-administered questionnaire study of 2484 subjects representing nearly
1250 pairs of spouses. The study was made by a psychological group, supported
by the National Research Council’s Committee for Research on Problems of Sex.
Most of the study was concerned with questions of personality and marital happi-
ness, but there are data on pre-marital intercourse and on marital intercourse. The
population came from various occupational groups, but chiefly from professional
and semi-professional classes. Seventy-one per cent of the sample had gone to college ;
the mean age was near 39 years; the subjects came from various areas in Cahfornia.
The statistical treatment is better than in most studies, because the data are analyzed
by age and by occupational class, although not simultaneously for the two factors
because the populations were not large enough to warrant such a breakdown. The
data would have been more reliable if they had been obtained by direct interviewing,
and the conclusions would have been totally different at certain points if the analyses
had been confined to particular educational levels.
In summarizing the taxonomic validity of the 19 studies reviewed above
it is to be noted that:
1. The previous investigators of American sexual behavior have been,
variously: Psychologists (in 9 cases), psychiatrists (in 4 cases), journalists
(2 persons), a gynecologist, biologists (in 2 cases), a student of education,
a public health officer, a social worker, a probation officer, and a physician
who was an officer in the Y.M.C.A. The statistically most useful work has
come from the two journalists (Bromley and Britten), the Y.M.C.A.’s
physician (Exner), a psychiatrist (Peck), four psychologists (Ramsey,
Finger, Taylor, and Wells), and the student of education (Peterson).
Other studies have not been as sound because of the mixed or otherwise
inadequate nature of the populations on which the generalizations were
based.
2, The techniques of the studies have been questionnaire in 10 cases, and
the examination of clinical records in 1 case. Gynecological examinations
have been made in 2 studies. In less than half (8) of the cases has the investi-
gator actually faced his subjects in actual interview, but in only 4 of the
studies (Dickinson, Merrill, Ramsey, and Taylor) has the interviewer
abandoned the limits of pre-formed questions and stilted formalities and
talked as friends talk to friends (Chapter 2). The most serious error in these
studies has been the wide use of questionnaires. They are used because they
are easier to administer, and they save time. When distributed to a group
of persons who simultaneously fill out the answers after they are brought
together in a lecture room, a Y.M.C.A. gathering, or an Army mess hall,
the investigator or his associates can secure a couple of hundred histories
in the same amount of time that another person, using a personal inter-
view technique, needs to contact, win, and secure a single history. How-
ever, the differences in values of the two techniques, especially when applied
to a socially taboo subject like sex, more than justify the extra time and
expense that go into an interview (Chapter 2).
32
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
3. More than a third (7) of the studies were based on material from the
New York City area, and 5 others came from nearby points in the eastern
United States. Our own data indicate that New York, in its sexual pattern,
is one of the unique cities in the country; and, in spite of its importance,
it does not give a picture which is typical of the United States as a whole.
Three of the studies on college students (Bromley and Britten, Exner, and
Peterson, all of them questionnaire studies) were the only ones which
drew data from any wide area over the country.
4. Males and females have figured about equally in the published
studies. In 10 cases only males were investigated; in 5 cases, only females;
in 4 cases, both males and females. The sex distribution is fairly good, but
there are few comparisons of the two sexes.
5. The previous studies were based wholly or primarily on individuals
of college level in 10 of the 19 cases. In 6 studies most of the subjects
belonged to groups that had not gone beyond high school, and in no study
was the sample distributed through large portions of the population. In
this field, as in many others, many of the studies have been “so limited by
the campus-bound inertia of research that generalizations have tended to
hold only for college students, rather than for man in generaf’ (McNemar
1946). This has been particularly disastrous in considering questions of
sexual behavior, for we now know (see later chapters) that different age
groups, persons who stop their education at different levels, and persons
from different social or occupational classes have very different sexual
patterns, involving in some groups participation in certain types of activi-
ties with frequencies that may be 10 or 20 times higher than the frequencies
in other portions of the population.
6. The number of questions asked in the various studies has varied from
8 in the earliest instance (Exner 1915) to 147 in the Hamilton study (1929).
There were 218 in the Ramsey study (1943) which was coordinated with our
own. There are 521 items which are systematically covered on each of the
histories in the present study (Chapter 3). In the earlier studies there is
evidence of a considerable hesitancy to ask direct questions about sex. The
interviewer is evidently embarrassed, substitutes euphemisms, and com-
pletely avoids whole chapters of possible activity. In our own experience,
direct questions on sex, asked as simply as questions about age, place of
birth, etc., are answered as simply as they are asked, and get more honest
answers. Either average men and women or the scientists have become
more scientific in the thirty years that have elapsed since American sex
surveys were first undertaken.
7. The size of the sample necessary for statistically sound generalizations
depends on the variability of the phenomenon under investigation and the
homogeneity of the population in respect to the factors which effect that
variation. We have indicated that pragmatic tests show that about 300
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION
33
cases are desirable for a sample in a group that is homogeneous for sex,
age, educational level, and the various other factors (Chapter 3). The total
number of cases gathered in most of the previously published studies falls
above these minima, and seems impressive until it is realized that only
five of the studies (Bromley and Britten, Exner, Finger, Peck and Wells,
Peterson) were restricted to populations wliich were homogeneous for
three or more of the factors listed above.
8. The possibility of extending the conclusions reached in any investi-
gation is, after all, the chief excuse for doing research. A mastery of the
realities of the universe, or of any particular corner of it, depends upon the
capacity to find over-all formulae, over-all descriptions which will apply
to the whole or to some appreciable portion of the whole. There is no use
in studying particular rats or mice or men if one has to believe that infor-
mation gained thereby will never again be of use, because one will never
again meet exactly the same kinds of rats or mice or men. There is no use
in tabulating and totalling and calculating means and other fine figures
about the sexual doings of particular people who go to a clinic or to an
office, or who fill out a questionnaire, if such calculations and totals give
no reliable notion of what the next group is doing, because the next group
is too different from the sample which was studied. One may, as Hamilton
did (1929:8-9), disclaim any interest in even trying to get a sample that
would be representative of any other group, and insist that one is simply
studying a particular two hundr^ persons because of a “desire to obtain
as many comparable case records as possible and a desire to make of each
case record a comprehensive list of significant facts about the individuals
under examination”; but no one is fooled, not even if it is a psychiatrist
who tries to rationalize away the objectors which his conscience anticipates
there will be among his “survey-minded readers.” The book is entitled “A
Research in Marriage” and there is no indication that it is supposed to end
up as a study of the marriages of a particular group of two hundred people;
but, rather, that it is a study of marriages in general, among people in
general. No one would bother to study and to publish on the sexual be-
havior of particular persons if he did not expect that his generalizations
would have some applicability to at least some other persons in the world.
The validity of extending generalizations derived from a study of any
sample depends, fundamentally and unavoidably, upon the representative-
ness of that sample. Each segment which is studied must be precisely
delimited, and all conclusions must be confined to such precisely defined
groups. This is the principle on which modern taxonomic method, the
agricultural and economic surveys, and the pubhc opinion polls depend.
Social scientists will have to pay as much attention to the way in which
they select their subjects if they are ever to arrive at generalizations which
are applicable to any large group of men. Unfortunately, such precise
34
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
delimitations of the samples used have not been attempted in most of the
previously published studies of sex. Davis, Hamilton, Dickinson, and Ter-
man had populations which were largely college, and would have illumi-
nated college populations very well if the samples had been strictly con-
fined to college people; but the significance of the data in all these studies
was impaired by the addition of cases from other social groups.
Beyond the specific studies which have been reviewed here, there are
several which present tabulated data on series of European histories,
mostly of Russian factory workers and Russian college students (see
Willoughby 1937 for a bibliography and a summary of the data). The
Continental European patterns of sex behavior are so distinct from the
American (as our own European sampling already indicates), that no
additions of the European to the American data should ever be made.
In addition, there are, of course, thousands of individual sex histories
in the psychiatric and psychologic journals and texts, and in hundreds of
other volumes. There are histories in the writings of Havelock Ellis, Freud,
Stekel, Hirschfeld, Krafft-Ebing, Mantegazza, Marcuse, Moll, Block,
Rohleder, Henry (1941), and a long list of others. In many ways these have
been important contributions on sex. As pioneer studies they contributed
materially to the development of a public realization that there were
scientific aspects to human sexual behavior, and the present-day student
finds it much simpler to undertake an investigation of sex because of the
influence which these older studies had? But none of the authors of the
older studies, in spite of their keen insight into the meanings of certain
things, ever had any precise or even an approximate knowledge of what
average people do sexually. They accumulated great bodies of sexual facts
about particular people, but they did not know what people in general did
sexually. They never knew what things were common and what things
were rare, because their data came from the miscellaneous and usually
unrepresentative persons who came to their clinics (Freud, Hirschfeld, et
al.), or from persons from whom they happened to receive correspondence
(Ellis), or from limited numbers of persons whom they interviewed in
elaborate detail (as in the Henry study). None of the older authors, with
the possible exception of Hirschfeld, attempted any systematic coverage
of particular items in each history, and consequently there was nothing to
be added or averaged, even for the populations with which they dealt.
Considering the importance which sexual problems have in the practice
of psychiatry, medicine, psychology, and counseling of every sort, it is dis-
concerting to reahze what scant bases there have been for over-all state-
ments that have been made in this field. The present study is designed as a
first step in the accumulation of a body of scientific fact that may provide
the bases for sounder generalizations about the sexual behavior of certain
groups and, some day, even of our American population as a whole.
Chapter 2
INTERVIEWING
The quality of a case history study begins with the quality of the inter-
viewing by which the data have been obtained. If^ in lieu of direct observa-
tion and experiment, it is necessary to depend upon verbally transmitted
records obtained from participants in the activities that are being studied,
then it is imperative that one become a master of every scientific device and
of all the arts by which any man has ever persuaded any other man into
exposing his activities and his innermost thoughts. Failing to win that much
from the subject, no statistical accumulation, however large, can ade-
quately portray what the human animal is doing. However satisfactory
the standard deviations may be, no statistical treatment can put validity
into generalizations which are based on data that were not reasonably
accurate and complete to begin with. It is unfortunate that academic
departments so often offer courses on the statistical manipulation of human
material to students who have little understanding of the problems involved
in securing the original data. Learning how to meet people of all ranks and
levels, establishing rapport, syiripathetically comprehending the signifi-
cances of things as others view them, learning to accept their attitudes and
activities without moral, social, or esthetic evaluation, being interested in
people as they are and not as someone else would have them, learning to
see the reasonable bsises of what at first glance may appear to be most
unreasonable behavior, developing a capacity to like all kinds of people
and thus to win their esteem and cooperation— these are the elements to
be mastered by one who would gather human statistics. When training in
these things replaces or at least precedes some of the college courses on the
mathematical treatment of data, we shall come nearer to having a science
of human behavior.
Problems of interviewing have been particularly important in the present
study because of the long-standing taboos which make it bad form and, for
most people, socially or legally dangerous to discuss one’s sexual activities
in public or even in the presence of one’s most intimate friends. It is
astounding that anyone should agree to expose himself by contributing his
sex history to an interviewer whom he has never before met, and to a
research project whose full significance he, in most instances, Cannot begin
to understand. Still more remarkable is the fact that many of the histories
in the present study have come from subjects who agreed to give histories
within the first few minutes after they fiurst met the interviewer. We are not
35
36
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
sure that we completely comprehend why people have been willing to talk
to us ; but there may be some value in discussing the bases on which we
have appealed for histories, and in describing some of the devices that we
have employed to establish the quality of the record.
MAKING CONTACTS
Any study which depends upon obtaining data from large numbers of
people must have an appeal which is sufficient to win the whole-hearted
cooperation of persons of every sort. In the present instance, the chief
appeal has been altruistic — an invitation to contribute to basic scientific
research, an opportunity to help others by sharing one’s experience. The
appeal to professionally trained and other educated groups has involved a
technical exposition of the scientific problems involved, and of the social
significance of securing data which clinicians may utilize in their practice.
The academic groups in psychology, biology, and sociology cooperated as
soon as they saw broad, basic principles emerging from the study. Reli-
gious groups saw a need for information on the early training of children,
and have shown an outstanding willingness to cooperate in any study which
might contribute to an understanding of problems which affect the stability
of the home and of marriage. More poorly educated and mentally dull
individuals have responded to the simple and brief explanation that ‘The
doctors need to know more about these things. They need your help, so
they can help other people.” The underworld requires only a gesture of
honest friendship before it is ready to a^imit one as a friend, and to give
histories “because you are my friend.” For each group the mode of the
appeal is different, but in each case it is based on the measure of altruism
that is to be found — if one knows how to find it — in nearly ail men.
In answer to our request for her history, the little, gray-haired woman
at the cabin door, out on the Western plain, epitomized what we have
heard now from hundreds of people: “Of all things — ! In all my years I
have never had such a question put to me! But — ^if my experience will help.
I’ll give it to you.” This, in many forms, some of them simple, some of them
sophisticated as scientists and scholars like them, some of them crude,
incisive, and abrupt as the underworld makes them, is the expression of
the altruistic bent (however philosophers and scientists may analyze it)
which has been the chief motive leading people to cooperate in this study.
We shall always be indebted “to the twelve thousand persons who have
contributed to these data, and to the eighty-eight thousand more who,
some day, will help complete this study.” However involved the reader
may become in the statistics, the fine points of the argument, and the grand
intricacies of the minute details, he will never understand this study until
he comprehends the human drama that has been involved in securing the
data.
In an honest way, we have tried to make those who have contributed
aware of our amazement at their willingness to help, and of our esteem
INTERVIEWING
37
for them because they have helped. This appreciation has, undoubtedly,
been a factor in winning cooperation. Evident appreciation may, therefore,
belong in the list of devices which may be employed to secure histories;
but appreciation must be sincere, else it will not work.
More selfish interests have animated many of those who have contrib-
uted. This is understandable, too. Many of the subjects have welcomed the
opportunity to obtain information about some item affecting their personal
lives, their marriages, their families, friends, or social relations. The more
frequent questions have concerned:
Possibly harmful effects from “excessive” sexual activity
Physical harm resulting from masturbation
Incidences of masturbation, pre-marital intercourse, extra-marital inter-
course, mouth-genital contacts, homosexual relations, animal con-
tacts
Comparisons of the individual’s activities with averages for the group
to which he belongs
“Am I normal?”
The physical and social significances of petting
The relation of pre-mantal experience to subsequent adjustment in
marriage
Items to consider in choosing a mate for marriage
Differences between male and female responsiveness
Techniques conducive to mutuality of response in marital intercourse
Medical aspects of contraception
Data on the sexual development and education of children
Problems arising from homosexual activity
Information about available medical, psychiatric, or other chnics to
which persons with special problems may be referred
Impotency, heredity of physical defects, worries over genital characters,
venereal disease, pregnancy (but these items only occasionally)
As scientists, the authors of this volume have given information when it
was available and scientifically established, while refusing to advise on any
choice of behavior. Nevertheless, many persons have felt that the informa-
tion obtained was sufficient repayment for their own contributions to the
study.
In a number of communities, public knowledge of this source of help
has brought many histories. This does not mean that an undue number
of neurotic or psychotic individuals has contributed. On the contrary,
items of the sort listed above are the everyday sexual problems of the
average individual; and the greatly disturbed type of person who goes to
psychiatric clinics has been relatively rare in our sample. We have refused
to take histories from recognizable psychotics who were handicapped with
poor memories, hallucinations, or fantasies that distorted the fact.
38
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The psychoanalyst will incline to the view that most of those who have
given histories have obtained some inflation of their egos by doing so.
This is undoubtedly true, whether the record was one of unusual prowess,
of conformance with the norm, or of low rates of activity which were the
result of some incapacity for which the individual wanted pity. Most
clinicians find that people like to talk about themselves. On the other hand,
there is no evidence that this human quality has distorted the record, and
the exaltation of one’s self has not seemed as significant as the altruistic
motives which have animated most of the subjects — unless altruism is, of
course, merely another means of self gratification.
There are some who have contributed histories in order to satisfy their
curiosity as to the nature of the questions asked, and to learn how such an
interview is conducted. Several hundred psychoanalysts, psychiatrists,
physicians, clinical psychologists, social workers, and other professional
persons have had an especial interest in observing the interviewing tech-
niques. In communities where we have worked for periods of time, persons
of every social level, even including the lowest, have volunteered in order
to find out what sort of thing their friends were experiencing when they
contributed histories.
In many instances, cooperation with the study may be made a group
activity. To accomplish this, an interviewer must utilize the principles of
mass psychology, mix them well with common sense, and add the skills of
a patent medicine vendor and a Fuller brwsh man — while, withal, maintain-
ing the community’s esteem for the dignity of a science wliich has nothing
to sell. Members of a college fraternity, a sorority, a church organization,
a parent-teacher group, a service club, all of the inmates of a penal institu-
tion, the patients of a particular physician, all of the persons in some section
of a city, all of the population in some rural community, may be persuaded
to contribute as a matter of loyalty to an activity which is officially or
tacitly supported by the group. In this way many persons have been reached
who, as lone individuals, would have had little interest in the research.
Loyalty to the group may also lead an individual to exercise more than
usual care in providing a detailed and accurate record of his activity.
Lectures to college, professional, church, and other community groups
have most frequently provided the entree to the better educated portions
of the population. Hundreds of such lectures have been given. Perhaps
50,000 persons have heard about the research through lectures, and per-
haps half of the histories now in hand have come in consequence of such
contacts.
Practically all of the contacts at lower levels, and many of those at other
levels, have depended upon introductions made by persons who had pre-
viously contributed their own histories. One who has not already given a
history is not usually effective as a “contact man.” Contact men and women
INTERVIEWING
39
have often spent considerable time and have gone to considerable pains to
interest their friends and acquaintances. Many hundreds of such persons
have helped, but a short list of those who have helped most will show
something of the diversity of the backgrounds which have been repre-
sented :
Bootleggers
Clergymen
Clerks
Clinical psychologists
College professors
College students
Corporation officials
Editors
Farmers
Female prostitutes
Gamblers
Headmasters of private schools
Housewives
Lawyers
Male prostitutes
Marriage counselors
Ne’er-do-wells
Persons in the Social Register
Physicians
Pimps
Police court officials
Prison inmates
Prison officials
Professional women
Psychiatrists
Public school teachers
Social workers
Thieves and hold-up men
Y.M.C.A. secretaries
Y.W.C.A. secretaries
Welfare workers
Women’s Club leaders
In securing histories through personal introductions, it is initially most
important to identify these key individuals, win their friendship, and
develop their interest in the research. Days and weeks and even some years
may be spent in acquiring the first acquaintances in a community. In a
sober rural area, the most highly esteemed of the local clergymen may be
the right person to sponsor the project. If it is a prison population, the
oldest-timer, the leading wolf, the kingpin in the inmate commonwealth,
or the girl who is the chief trouble-maker for the administration must be
won before one can go very far in securing the histories of other inmates.
If it is a good residential area in a large city, the quiet but steady young
housewife with a host of friends who know they can count on her, or the
sociable and reasonably successful middle-aged business man who is active
in service clubs and civic projects, is the person most likely to put us across
in that community. If it is the underworld, we may look for the man with
the longest FBI record and the smallest number of convictions, and set out
to win him. To get the initial introductions, it is necessary to become
acquainted with someone who knows someone who knows the person we
want to meet. Contacts may develop from the most unexpected sources. A
rich man may provide the introduction to a leader in the underworld, a
Salvation Army worker may serve as the contact for the Social Register.
The number of persons who can provide introductions has continually
spread until now, in the present study, we have a network of connections
that could put us into almost any group with which we wished to work,
anywhere in the country.
Having met these significant persons, and gotten their histories, we take
time to become acquainted with them and with their communities. They
40
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
must come to like us as individuals, and the whole community must know
about us and about the research, if we expect to secure any large number
of histories in the area. We go with them to dinner, to concerts, to night
clubs, to the theater; we become acquainted with them at community
dances, in poolrooms, in taverns, and in other places which they frequent.
They in turn invite us to meet friends in their homes, at teas, at dinners, at
other social events. For years we have maintained a considerable corre-
spondence with persons who are likely sources of new contacts. In many
cases we have developed friendships which are based upon mutual respect
and upon our common interest in the success of this project. When, in the
course of time, we turn to securing histories from the rest of the community,
most of the people who then contribute do so because they are friends of
our friends, because they accept the contact man’s evaluation of the
research, and because of their confidence that he would not involve them
in difficulties. Among more poorly educated groups, and among such
minority groups as rural populations, Negroes, segregated Jewish popula-
tions, homosexual groups, penal institutional inmates, the underworld, etc.,
the community is particularly sensitive to the dangers of outside interfer-
ence, and particularly dependent upon the advice of their leaders in decid-
ing whether they should cooperate.
An element of competition may be introduced by working two groups
simultaneously or in immediate succession. College A contributes because
College B has also contributed. College B is persuaded to cooperate
because College A has already contributed more histories than B. The
principle works equally well for fraternity and sorority groups, for people
living in different houses on a city block, for the inmates of a penal institu-
tion, for the court judge and his staff, for groups of psychiatrists, and for
many other groups.
There may be a certain amount of pressure employed in securing his-
tories from the last persons in any group which is contributing a hundred
percent to the study. Sometimes the pressure has originated from the
investigators, more often it has been the group interest which has swayed
the individual. There has been some constraint upon professional people,
especially upon those who are involved in giving sexual advice in clinics,
to contribute to a research project which will serve them in their profes-
sional activities. Some of the histories obtained from inmates in institutions
probably would not have been obtained except for the institutional tradi-
tion of conformance to the administration’s program, or to the group
activity in which all the other inmates were cooperating. Where such
indirect or more direct pressure is employed it becomes particularly
important to establish a satisfactory rapport with each subject after he
has actually come into conference for a history.
Payment for histories has been confined to the economically poorer
elements in the population, to persons who are professionally involved in
INTERVIEWING
41
sexual activities (as prostitutes, pimps, exhibitionists, etc.) or to others who
have turned from their regular occupation and spent considerable time in
helping make contacts. The payment has never been large, rarely amount-
ing to more than a dollar or two for the couple of hours involved in con-
tributing; and equivalent amounts may be paid to persons who have
helped make the contacts. There is no evidence that such payments have
distorted the quality of the record, although the prospect of securing double
payment leads an occasional individual to try to duplicate his contribution.
In the latter case, it has been necessary to keep accurate records and require
identification; but this has presented only a minor problem. On the whole,
payment has worked well, for it has undoubtedly made it possible to secure
many histories which otherwise would not have been obtainable; and it
should be realized that even in the groups which are paid, men and women
have contributed primarily because they respect us, because they appre-
ciate our interest in them, and because they are willing to contribute for
the sake of helping others. Certain it is that the remarkable body of con-
fidential information that has been secured from some of these lower level
and underworld groups would not have been available if there had been
no other bases than money to interest them. Twelve thousand people
have helped in this research primarily because they have faith in scientific
research projects.
ESTABLISHING RAPPORT
There are, after all, only two reasons why anyone should hesitate to
contribute his sex history to a scientific project. He may hesitate because
he fears that the interviewer will object to something in his history, and he
may fear a loss of social prestige, or legal penalties, if his history were to
become a matter of public knowledge. An occasional individual has
hesitated, in addition, because he did not want to stir up memories of old
fears, old hurts, or old losses that were associated with his or her sexual
life; occasionally a psychotic — or simply a contrary individual — has
blocked at cooperating; but most persons who have hesitated have done
so because they feared embarrassment before the interviewer, or feared
public disclosure of their activities.
It is imperative, therefore, that the investigator be able to convince the
subject:
1. That he, as a scientist, offers no objection to any type of sexual
behavior in which the subject could possibly have been involved.
2. That the confidences of the record wiU be kept without question.
A scientist studying sex should be able to accept any type of sexual
behavior objectively, listen to the record without adverse reaction, and
record without social or moral evaluation. That much is expected of the
student measuring the lengths of insect wings, recording the chemical
changes that occur in a test tube, or observing the colors of the stars. It is
42
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
not too much to expect similar objectivity of the student, of human
behavior.
But something more than cold objectivity is needed in dealing with
human subjects. One is not likely to win the sort of rapport which brings
a full and frank confession from a human subject unless he can convince
the subject that he is desperately anxious to comprehend what his experi-
ence has meant to him. Sexual histories often involve a record of things
that have hurt, of frustrations, of pain, of unsatisfied longings, of dis-
appointments, of desperately tragic situations, and of complete catas-
trophe, The subject feels that the investigator who asks merely routine
questions has no right to know about such things in another’s history. The
interviewer who senses what these things can mean, who at least momen-
tarily shares something of the satisfaction, pain, or bewilderment which
Was the subject’s, who shares something of the subject's hope that things
will, somehow, work out right, is more effective, though he may not be
altogether neutral.
The sympathetic interviewer records his reactions in ways that may not
involve spoken words but which are, nonetheless, readily comprehended
by most people. A minute change of a facial expression, a slight tensing of
a muscle, the flick of an eye, a trace of a change in one’s voice, a slight
inflection or change in emphasis, slight changes in one’s rate of speaking,
slight hesitancies in putting a question or in following up with the next
question, one’s choice of words, one’s spontaneity in inquiring about items
that are off the usual routine, or any of a dozen and one other involuntary
reactions betray the interviewer’s emotions, and most subjects quickly
understand them. Unlettered persons and persons of mentally lower levels
are often particularly keen in sensing the true nature of another person’s
reactions.
If the interviewer’s manner spells surprise, disapproval, condemnation,
or even cold disinterest, he will not get the whole of the record. If his
reactions add up right, then the subject is willing to tell his story. The
interview has become an opportunity for him to develop his own thinking,
to express to himself his own disappointments and hopes, to bring into the
open things that he has previously been afraid to admit to himself, to work
out solutions to his difficulties. He quickly comes to realize that a full and
complete confession will serve his own interests. It becomes unthinkable
that he should cover up, deny, or fail to relate anything that has happened.
^ These are the things that can be done in a person-to-person, guided inter-
view that represents a communion between two deeply human individuals,
the subject and the interviewer (McNemar 1946). These are the things that
can never be done through a written questionnaire, or even through a
directed interview in which the questions are formalized and the confines
of the investigation strictly limited. In the present study, the number of
INTERVIEWING
43
persons who have admitted involvement in every type of sexual activity,
and particularly in socially taboo types of activity, is much greater
than has ever been disclosed in any questionnaire study; and com-
parisons of the data in this and in previously published studies should
provide some measure of the possibilities of personal interviewing as a
technique in case history studies.
It has been asked how it is possible for an interviewer to know whether
people are telling the truth, when they are boasting, when they are covering
up, or when they are otherwise distorting the record. As well ask a horse
trader how he knows when to close a bargain! The experienced interviewer
knows when he has established a sufficient rapport to obtain an honest
record, in the same way that the subject knows that he can give that honest
record to the interviewer. Learning to recognize these indicators, intangible
as they may be, is the most important thing in controlling the accuracy of
an interview. Beyond that there are cross-checks among the questions,
inconsistencies to watch for, questions which demand proof, and other
devices for testing the validity of the data (all of which are discussed in the
last section of the present chapter).
At the beginning of an interview the subject must be assured that he can
tell all, but it is not always possible to win complete rapport at the very
start. The subject will need to be reassured many times in the course of the
interview, and continually convinced by the evident sympathy of the inter-
viewer. Often the subject begins >by admitting only a small part of his
activity, and adds more only gradually as he becomes more certain that he
can do so without disapproval. — “Yes, I have been approached for such
relations, but I did not pay attention.”— “Yes, there were physical contacts,
but they did not interest me.”— “Yes, there were complete contacts—
when I was asleep,” — “Yes, there was one affair in which I responded, in
a mild way.”— “Yes, I liked it well enough, but I didn’t think I wanted any
more of it.” — “Well, yes, I did try it again.” — “Yes, since then I have
become interested, and I have had a good deal of it lately.” — So the history
builds up. At each step the subject intended to stop with the minimum of
information, and would have stopped completely if there had been any
indication that the interviewer was surprised, was offended, or disapproved.
After each essay, the additional bit of information was added because the
subject discovered that he could tell more. If, at any point, the interviewer
had failed, the story would have stopped there.
Sometimes the capacity of the investigator is severely tested. Whatever
his sexual background, each person reaches the limit of things he can
understand because of his own previous experience, the limit of things he
can appear to understand because he has wanted them and would have had
them if it had been socially expedient, and the limit of things he can sym-
pathetically admit because he has glimpsed what they have meant to some
44
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Other people. Beyond that there are always things which seem esthetically
repulsive, provokingly petty, foolish, unprofitable, senseless, unintelligent,
dishonorable, contemptible, or socially destructive. Gradually one learns
to forego judgments on these things, and to accept them merely as facts
for the record. If one fails in his acceptance, he will know of it by the
sudden confusion or sudden tenseness of his subject, and the quick con-
clusion of the story. If the interviewer masters his own confusion, the sub-
ject may tell him about it, and congratulate him to boot for being able
and willing to “take it.”
The many persons who have contributed to this study have done so
voluntarily and with a full understanding of what we were trying to learn
through our questioning. To have used any sort of devious device would
have ruined the subject’s confidence in everything we were doing. It has
repeatedly been suggested that we try narcosynthesis, lie detectors, or
other such means for testing the reliability of at least some of the answers
of some of the subjects; but if we had coerced a single person by any such
means, we would have lost our capacity to win things from anyone else. In
any study which needs to secure quantities of data from human subjects,
there is no way except to win their voluntary cooperation through the
establishment of that intangible thing known as rapport.
THE CONFIDENCE OF THE RECORD
Our laws and customs are so far removed from the actual behavior of
the human animal that there are few persons who can afford to let their
full histories be known to the courts or even to their neighbors and their
best friends ; and persons who are expected to disclose their sex histories
must be assured that the record will never become known in connection
with them as individuals. Each subject in this study has contributed only
because he has been thus assured by a friend whom he trusts, or by the
investigator at the beginning of the interview. It is important to note, how-
ever, that assuring one of the confidence of the record can be effective only
when that assurance is honest in its intent and never, under any circum-
stance, betrayed in its execution. If there were ever a single failure to main-
tain such confidence, then others would learn of it and refuse to contribute
histories. The care with which confidences have been guarded in the present
study has probably never been surpassed in any other project dealing with
human material.
Keeping confidence in this study has involved the development of a
cryptic code in which all of the data have been recorded (Chapter 3,
Figure 2). The code is never translated into words at any stage in the
analyses of the data. Each interviewer has memorized the code, and there
is no key to the code in existence. Only the six persons who have actually
taken histories have ever known any part of the code, and only four
persons are, at the present writing, acquainted with the whole code. None
INTERVIEWING
45
of the other persons who have helped in the technical work in our labora-
tory knows the code. A few routine tabulations of non-sexual items have
been made by the technical assistants ; but practically all of the handling
of the data, including the punching of the Hollerith cards and their manipu-
lation in the IBM statistical machines, has been done by those of us who
have taken the histories. Never in the nine years of this research has any
other person had access to the information available on the histories of
particular individuals.
It has been necessary to preserve the identity of each history in order to
make subsequent additions, in order to compare re-takes of histories
(Chapter 4), and in order to coordinate data coming froin two or more
persons involved in the same sexual activities (as spouses in a marriage or
heterosexual or homosexual companions in common sexual activities).
This identification has been accomplished by the use of a coded set of
symbols for which, again, there is no key in existence. The code was
developed with the help of an experienced cryptographer and involves,
simultaneously, the use of several devices designed to complicate possible
decoding. It is the judgment of the cryptographer who tried to break the
final form that decoding would be impossible unless one had access to all
of the histories and all of the files for a considerable period of time; and
that after identification the data would be practically unintelligible because
of the difficulty of deciphering such a position code as the one used here.
It should be added that the histories are kept behind locked doors and in
fireproof files with locks that are inique for this project.
To a very large degree, analyzing this material has involved additions
of data, summations of the numbers of persons engaged in particular
activities, tabulations of ages, tabulations of frequencies, totals of other
data, and correlations of facts and factors ; and, as taxonomists interested
in the behavior of whole segments of the population, we do not foresee
that we will ever be concerned with the publication of the particular his-
tories of particular individuals. It has, therefore, been possible to guaran-
tee that no history will ever be published in a form which would identify it
as an individual history. It has been possible to explain the safety of this
mode of publication even to uneducated and mentally duller individuals,
and thus to persuade them that they can safely contribute histories.
Individual histories in this project have been discussed only among the
research associates on this staff. They have not been discussed even with
professional friends outside of the staff. Particular histories have not been
used as illustrations in public lectures or in group conversation, although
examples have sometimes been synthesized from real cases. They have not
been discussed even when the individuals involved were geographically so
remote as to seem unidentifiable; for people travel about over the country,
and one often meets persons who are acquainted with one’s subjects in
some distant town.
46
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Few professional people seem to know what it means to preserve the
absolute confidence of a record. Professional confidence too often refers
to the discussion of individual cases with anyone in the professional
fraternity. Such discussions, often in the hearing of secretaries or nurses,
soon spread the information abroad, whence it returns to confound the
subject who gave his history only after he was guaranteed strict confidence.
Professional people connected with courts too often obtain confessions by
promising the confidence of the record, which they promptly betray by
carrying the data to the court. Academic persons doing research on human
case histories regularly turn them over to graduate students to be studied,
and on occasion exhibit them, with names attached, to whole classes of
students for examination. Few clinical records are ever in code, and in
very few cases is there any attempt to separate the name of the subject
from the plainly written record. In many a social welfare agency there are
more non-professional persons who see the confidential records than there
are professional people in the organization. In penal institutions there are
always inmates who are employed in clerical positions, where they have
access to the “confidential” records; and information spreads through
them to the whole of the inmate body. In some institutions the inmate
population is better acquainted with the content of some of these records
than the officials themselves. Persons who have been betrayed through
such sources become, naturally enough, skeptical about contributing fur-
ther data to any professional person, and it has often been difficult to
convince them that our own records wduld be kept inviolate.
We have been pressed by many people for information about particular
persons who have contributed histories. Husbands and wives often want
data about their spouses, and in many cases such information would help
them make better marital adjustments; but if such information were ever
given, other husbands and wives would not be willing to give their histories.
Parents ask about their children, and partners in common sexual activities
often want advice which cannot be given without drawing upon the con-
fidential record. While it has disappointed many persons not to secure
such information, their esteem for the integrity of the records has inevi-
tably increased and, in consequence, they are then willing to contribute
their own histories, and to interest their friends in the project.
In penal and other institutions, we have maintained an invariable rule
that no confidence given by an inmate would ever be passed on to the
administration of the institution. We have worked only in institutions
which have accepted us on these terms. No administration has ever asked
us to break the rule. In a few cases where we have felt that some inmate
would find it to his advantage to have the administration know more of
his history, we have advised the subject to that effect and, if he has agreed,
we have helped make such contacts — but only when he has voluntarily
agreed to such a procedure.
INTERVIEWING
47
There is probably no legal right for anyone to preserve the confidence
of any information which has been given him. By custom the courts
ordinarily recognize the rights of a priest or of a physician to preserve
confidences obtained in the performance of their professional duties, but
there is no statute law establishing such a right. If we were brought before
a court we would have to hope that such precedents would be extended to
scientists involved in the investigation of such a subject as human sex
behavior. If the courts of all levels were to refuse to recognize such a
privilege, there would be no alternative but to destroy our complete body
of records and accept the consequences of such defiance of the courts. If
law enforcement officials, students of law, and persons interested in social
problems want scientific assistance in understanding such problems, they
will have to recognize a scientist’s right to maintain the absolute confidence
of his records ; for without that it would be impossible to persuade persons
to contribute to this sort of study.
TECHNICAL DEVICES IN INTERVIEWING
The skillful interviewer will develop particular techniques which work
for him, though they may not serve another investigator so well. But even
though there are these differences in the applicability of particular methods,
it may be of value to other persons who are interested in interviewing to
know something of the technical devices that have proved effective in the
present research. ^
1. Putting the subject at ease. Many of the persons who contribute to
a sex study manifest some uneasiness at the beginning of an interview, and
from the start particular attention needs to be given to putting the subject
at ease. Interviews are held in places that are as attractive and comfortable
as the subject’s social background may demand. Many persons are con-
siderably helped if they can smoke during the interview. Conversation is
initiated as casually as possible, first about everyday affairs that may be
remote from anything that is sexual. If the subject knows someone whom
we have previously known, or has recreational interests which are in any
way connected with our own, that provides a basis for conversation. One
does the sort of things that a thoughtful host would do to make his guests
comfortable, but always easily so that the subject is not aware that they
are designed to put him at ease.
2. Assuring privacy. Places where the interviews are held should be
reasonably soundproof, and there should be no unexpected interruptions
from other persons entering the room.* From the very set-up of the inter-
view, the subject must be reassured of confidence.
* In contrast, we have observed a psychiatrist interviewing a subject, who was under
criminal indictment, in a small room in which a half dozen persons were continually
moving about and listening to the whole of the conversation.
3
48
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
3, Establishing rapport. The subject should be treated as a friend or
a guest in one’s own home. The tottering old man who is a victim of his
first penal conviction, appreciates the interviewer’s solicitation about his
health and his interest in seeing that he is provided with tobacco, candy,
or the other things that the institution allows one who has sufficient funds.
The inmate in a woman’s penal institution particularly appreciates those
courtesies which a male would extend to a woman of his own social rank,
in his own home. The interviewer should be as interested in the subject as
he is in recording the subject’s history. It is important to look the subject
squarely in the eye, while giving only a minimum of attention to the record
that is being made. People understand each other when they look directly
at each other.
4. Sequence of topics. Since, as already indicated, it is often necessary
to build up rapport after an interview has actually started, it is advisable
to begin a conference with the items that are non-sexual and least likely to
disturb the subject, and to follow with a sequence which leads gradually
into things that the subject may consider more difficult to discuss. Those
things on which one may expect the maximum cover-up and blockage
should be left until the end of the interview. By then the subject has
acquired confidence, and it is possible to secure a record of things that
could never have been secured at the beginning of the interview. In the
present study we usually begin with a discussion of the subject’s age, place
of birth, educational history, recreational interests, physical health, paren-
tal background, brothers, sisters, and other non-sexual data. The first
sexual items are those for which the subject is least responsible, namely the
sources of his sex education. The record of overt sexual activities begins
with the things that are most remote, such as the pre-adolescent sex play.
From there on the sequence of topics is varied in accordance with the
subject’s social background, his age, and his educational level. For unmar-
ried college males the sequence is nocturnal emissions, masturbation,
pre-marital petting, pre-marital intercourse with companions, intercourse
with prostitutes, animal contacts, and the homosexual. For males who
have never gone beyond the tenth grade in school, pre-marital intercourse
can be discussed much earUer in the interview, because it is generally
accepted at that social level; but masturbation needs to be approached
more carefully if one is to get the truth from that group. At that level,
petting is secondary to intercourse in interest and in acceptance, and it is
brought into an interview only after the discussion of intercourse.
With many females it is simpler to get a record of the homosexual than
a record of masturbatory activity. For the older generation of males of
every social level it is simpler to get a record of pre-marital intercourse than
to get a record of masturbation. With persons who have publicly known
homosexual histories, extensive masochistic or sadistic experience, his-
tories as prostitutes, or other special sorts of sex experience, we get better
INTERVIEWING
49
cooperation when we take the record of the special experience before trying
to get details on the more usual activities. It is often easier to get the pro-
fessional record from a female prostitute than it is to get the record of her
personal sex life with her boy friend or with her husband. In dealing with
an uneducated and timid older woman from a remote farm area or moun-
tain country, the sequence has to become most desultory, including only
the simplest questions about each type of sexual experience, with no details
on any point until the whole of the history has been covered in a prelimi-
nary way. By then the subject should have become more confident, and it
will be possible to ask her such details about each type of activity as would
have shocked her at the beginning of the interview. A good interviewer
becomes very sensitive to the reactions of his subjects, immediately drops
any line of inquiry which causes embarrassment, and stays with simpler
matters until the subject is ready to talk in more detail. This technique,
more than anything else, probably accounts for the fact that among the
12,000 persons who have been interviewed in the present study, all but
three or four have completed their histories ; and those few would not have
been lost if we had known as much at the beginning of this study as we
now know about a good sequence of questions in an interview.
5. Recognizing the subject’s mental status. One should not attempt
to take a history from a subject who is mentally incapacitated, whether
permanently or temporarily so. Persons who are badly intoxicated cannot
give reliable histories ; and while it is impossible to rule out all who have
been drinking, since that would^'ule out a high proportion of all persons
in certain social groups, one must learn to identify the level of intoxication
of his subjects and avoid taking a record that is below standard. Some
individuals, of course, are more cooperative when they have had a small
amount of alcohol. Persons who are under the immediate influence of
drugs, particularly of some narcotic that induces sleep, are impossible as
subjects. A person who is heavily intoxicated with marihuana (which is
not a drug) is similarly unrehable. Benzedrine and some other drugs are
not so hkely to interfere with the individual’s capacity to give an accurate
record. Persons who are physically exhausted or mentally fatigued are
difficult, and some older persons who are badly senile are hopeless.
Feeble-minded individuals vary considerably in their capacities to
remember things. There are some whose memories are accurate on details,
and this is also true of many uneducated persons who are not feeble-
minded. Consequently, the interviewer must learn to identify a feeble-
minded case and must preface the interview with such ordinary, everyday
conversation as will allow him to determine the capacities of such an
individual. It is possible to get a fair record from most feeble-minded
individuals whose IQ’s are not below 50, although interviewing any person
with a rating below 70 becomes a slow process in which each idea must be
given plenty of time to penetrate, with endless repetition, and with a
50
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
vocabulary which is confined to the simplest of words, both in the sexual
vernacular and in the references to commonplace activities.
6. Recording at time of interview. In the literature on interviewing, it
is customary to advise that records should not be made in the presence of a
subject, but that they should be made after the subject has left at the close
of an interview. This is the commonest procedure among many psychia-
trists, clinical psychologists, and among social workers. It is supposed that
a subject is embarrassed at seeing his statements put on paper, and that
he will talk more freely if he feels that he can say some things that are not
recorded. It has been said that there is a loss of rapport when the inter-
viewer records during the interview. For these reasons we attempted to
follow standard practice early in this study and found that it introduced a
tremendous error into the records. Much of the specific quotation which
appears in psychiatric literature evidently represents the interview'er’s
notion of how the subject talked rather than a record of what the subject
actually said. After the first few months of this study, we began to record
all of the data directly in the presence of the subject, and there has been
no indication that this has been responsible for any loss of rapport or
interference with the subject’s free exposure of confidences. We have
become convinced that any loss of rapport which comes when data are
recorded directly has been consequent upon the longhand method of
writing out answers while the subject sits in silence waiting for the next
question. This is the thing that is destructive to rapport. By using a code
for recording, it has been possible in the present study to record as rapidly
as one can carry on a conversation, without loss of rapport or blockage on
the subject’s part.
7. Systematic coverage. On each history in the present study there has
been a systematic coverage of a basic minimum of about 300 items. This
minimum is expanded for persons who have extended experience in pre-
marital or extra-marital intercourse, who have extended homosexual his-
tories, who have had experience as prostitutes or pimps, or who have had
multiple marriages. The maximum history covers 521 items. One of the
most fundamental aspects of the present survey is its systematic coverage
of a uniform list of items on each history. Such coverage is not possible in
a free association procedure where the subject records things as they
happen to come to his mind and where, in consequence, each person may
provide information on some items that are not covered by the next persons
in the study, and where, in consequence, it is impossible to add together
and secure incidence or frequency figures that would be applicable even to
the sample population as a whole. The use of a standard form in coding
the data (Figure 2) makes it possible to look over the history sheet at the
end of an interview, and to make sure that every block in which there
should be some record has been satisfactorily accounted for.
INTERVIEWING
51
8. Supplementary exploration. While there be a basic minimum of
material that is covered on each history, the interviewer should not hesitate
to secure additional data on special situations that are outside of the
routine. For instance, about twenty questions are routinely asked about
masturbation, but there are males who have developed elaborate tech-
niques about which scores of additional questions should be put. Concern-
ing the average individual’s relations with his parents, the routine questions
may give all the necessary information on most individuals, but an occa-
sional individual may have had some complex relation with his parents
which makes it valuable to get the record in more detail. In taking the
histories of identical twins, especial inquiry is made about their emotional
relations to each other, the extent to which they share common social
activities, and other items which are not touched in the usual history. A
highly intelligent individual who has had considerable experience in a
socially taboo type of behavior may help analyze the situation in such detail
as is never investigated in the average history. In the routine, there are
only minor questions on masochism and sadism, but if there is any indica-
tion that a subject has been consciously and deliberately involved in such
behavior, he should be questioned on scores of items which are not in the
basic interview. Persons who are blind, deaf, crippled, or otherwise handi-
capped, persons who have lived in foreign countries, persons who have
had experience in military groups or who have Jived in other special
situations, similarly become sources of special information. As scientific
explorers, we, in the present stildy, have been unlimited in our search to
find out what people do sexually. These, again, are the things that can be
done in a guided interview and which cannot be touched in a questionnaire
study or even in a directed interview.
9. Standardizing the point of the question. In the present study, the
questions asked in the interviews have never been standardized in form,
but the points which they cover have been strictly defined. When the sub-
ject is asked about his relations to his parents, there is a strict definition
of the period to which the information should apply. When the question
concerns the subject’s experience in petting, petting is precisely defined so
there is no confusion about the sort of experience which may be included
imder that head. When the subject’s relations with prostitutes are the issue,
a clear distinction is made between a prostitute and a girl who is merely
promiscuous. Data about the health of an individual are designed to catch
those illnesses which interfere with an individual’s social adjustment. Each
other question has had its point precisely defined, in order that the data
secured from the many different subjects and by the several interviewers
may fairly be added together. It is unfortunate that the limitations of space
make it impossible to give the whole list of questions, with their precise
definitions, anywhere in the present volume, although a list of items covered
in each interview is shown in Chapter 3.
52
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
10. Adapting the form of the question. While the point of each question
has been standardized, the form of each question has varied for the
various social levels and for the various types of persons with whom the
study has dealt. Standardized questions do not bring standardized answers,
for the same question means different things to different people. In order
to have questions mean the same thing to different people, they must be
modified to fit the vocabulary, the educational background, and the com-
prehension of each subject. It is especially important to use a vocabulary
with which the subject will feel at home, and which he will understand.
The college-bred interviewer needs to go to considerable pains to limit his
vocabulary to the relatively few words that are employed by persons in
lower educational levels. Everyday terms, as well as sexual vernaculars,
are involved: a lower level individual, for instance, is never ill or injured,
though he may be sick or hurt. He does not wish to do a thing, though he
wants to do it. He does not perceive, though he sees. He is not acquainted
with a person, though he may know him. One needs a certain sensitivity
to adapt his vocabulary to the limited usages of such subjects. Except
among college graduates, there is little knowledge of the clinical terms that
concern sex, and sexual vernaculars must be used in interviewing lower
level individuals. Such vernaculars vary considerably among different
groups.
One must know and use the vernacular terms with a fine sense of their
proprieties and their exact meanings in ^.ach group. Their awkward use
may damage instead of building rapport. Sexual vernaculars differ con-
siderably in different sections of the country. One should take considerable
pains to determine the precise meanings of the variant terms as soon as he
starts work in a community. Negro and white groups differ in their usages
even in the same city. There are differences between the vocabularies of
older and younger generations in any social level. A volume could be
written on the vernaculars that should be known by anyone attempting to
deal with people outside of his own social level, and the training of inter-
viewers for the present study has involved a considerable amount of work
on that point. Everywhere questions must be varied so they will bring
replies that pertain to exactly the same thing. In many instances, questions
must be freely expanded in order to make their meanings clear to the sub-
ject. This again is the sort of thing which cannot be done with a question-
naire or with a directed interview in which the questions are standardized
as to form.
11. Avoiding bias. In a study in which the forms of the questions are
not standardized, there is a considerable responsibility on the interviewer
to see to it that his spontaneous questions are not so phrased as to bias
the subject’s reply (McNemar 1946). In his tone of voice and in his choice
of words, the interviewer must avoid giving the subject any clue as to the
INTERVIEWING
53
answers he expects. For instance, when the subject is at a loss to know how
to estimate the frequencies with which he has engaged in a particular sort
of activity, the interviewer can explain what sorts of frequencies are pos-
sible, provided he is careful not to give any idea what frequencies are com-
mon in the population, or what frequencies he, the subject, might be ex-
pected to have. What is actually done is to suggest to the subject that his
activity might average once a week, three or four times a week, once a
month, every day, or more often, or less often. The interviewer avoids
suggesting an answer by avoiding any sequence in the illustrative list which
he gives, and is careful not to attach particular importance to the last
item in the list, which is the one that many persons will accept as their
answer if the interviewer is not on his guard. Feeble-minded individuals
and occasionally some other persons are highly suggestible, and then it
becomes particularly important to avoid suggesting answers and important
to test all answers for consistency.
12. Direct questions. When one is deahng with such a socially involved
question as sex it becomes particularly important to ask direct questions,
without hesitancy and without apology. If the interviewer shows any un-
certainty or embarrassment, it is not to be expected that the subject will do
better in his answers. Euphemisms should not be used as substitutes for
franker terms. In some of the previous studies, many sexual terms are
avoided: masturbation becomes “touching yourself”; a climax in mas-
turbation becomes “securing a* thrill through touching yourself”; and
sexual intercourse becomes “relations with other persons,” or “sex delin-
quency” (Ackerson 1931, 1942). With such questions the subject cannot
help but sense the fact that the interviewer is not sure that sex is an honor-
able thing, and a thing that can be frankly talked about. Evasive terms
invite dishonest answers. In one of the previous studies there was a long
list of questions concerning the homosexual, but the approach was so
incfirect that a person who had had an abundance of such experience could
have answered every one of the questions honestly, and still never have
admitted that he had ever had an overt experience.
13. Placing the burden of denial on the subject. The interviewer should
not make it easy for a subject to deny his participation in any form of
sexual activity. It is too easy to say no if he is simply asked whether he has
ever engaged in a particular activity. We always assume that everyone has
engaged in every type of activity. Consequently we always begin by asking
when they first engaged in such activity. This places a heavier burden on
the individual who is inchned to deny his experience ; and since it becomes
apparent from the form of our question that we would not be surprised if
he had had such experience, there seems to be less reason for denying it.
It might be thought that this approach would bias the answer, but there
is no indication that we get false admissions of participation in forms of
54
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
sexual behavior in which the subject was not actually involved. Other
techniques of modifying questions, particularly if they concern socially
taboo behavior, may bring a considerable increase in the number of posi-
tive answers.
14. Avoiding multiple questions. Anyone experienced in teaching
should have learned to avoid multiple questions. Multiple questions usually
bring replies that are ambiguous, and their avoidance in a sex study is
particularly important because they provide an opportunity for the subject
to dodge one of the questions by giving his attention entirely to the other.
For instance, the interviewer who asks the subject if he is erotically aroused
“by seeing nude males or females,” may get as an answer that he is always
aroused by seeing females. Thereby the subject manages to evade the fact
that he is to some degree aroused by seeing males.
15. Rapid-fire questioning. In order to cover the maximum amount of
material in a single interview, it is necessary to ask questions as rapidly as
the subject can possibly comprehend and reply. This method has the fur-
ther advantage of forcing the subject to answer spontaneously without too
much premeditation. Such a rapid fire of questions provides one of the
most effective checks on fabrication, as detectives and other law-enforce-
ment oflScials well know. It would be practically impossible for a person
who was deliberately falsifying to answer the many questions that are
asked concerning the details of his activity, when the questions come as
rapidly as they do in our interviewing. Looking an individual squarely in
the eye, and firing questions at him with maximum speed, are two of the
best guarantees against exaggeration.
16. Cross-checks on accuracy. Cover-up is more easily accomplished
than exaggeration in giving a history. The best protection against cover-up
lies in the use of a considerable list of interlocking questions which provide
cross-checks throughout the history, and particularly in regard to socially
taboo items. There are, for instance, twelve questions concerning homo-
sexual experience that appear in each interview before direct questions on
that point are ever asked. The significance of some of these preliminary
questions would not be recognized by anyone except a skilled psychiatrist.
It would be difiicult for most persons who had had anything more than
incidental homosexual experience to deny that fact after they had answered
the questions which provide the cross-checks on this point. There are
similar cross-checks on various other aspects of a history. Such devices
should be confined, however, to honest inquiries concerning items which
are an integral part of the individuaFs history; and one should avoid setting
traps that put the subject on the defensive because they are obvious de-
vices for forcing him into an admission.
Probably the most effective system of cross-checks has been the use of
vocabularies that are peculiar to persons with particular sorts of experience,
INTERVIEWING
55
and which are quite unknown to persons without such experience. For
instance, when one asks a female subject "‘how many years she has been
in the life,” she must betray an honest confusion and inability to under-
stand, or else she identifies herself as a prostitute. There are special argots
for practically all of the socially taboo activities; and they may provide
checks on many of the persons who must be included in a human case his-
tory study. Nevertheless, in spite of all that may be done, a certain amount
of deliberate cover-up may slip by, and the investigator must find some
means of measuring the extent of that cover-up in each part of his data.
17. Proving the answer. If it becomes apparent that the subject’s first
answer is not correct or sufficient, one should ask for additional informa-
tion, and re-phrase the original question in a way that will make him
prove his answer or expose the falsity of his reply. In a rapid fire of addi-
tional questions, it is difficult for a dishonest subject to be consistent. With
uneducated persons, and particularly with feeble-minded individuals, it is
sometimes effective to pretend that one has misunderstood the negative
repHes and ask additional questions, just as though the original answers
were affirmatives; whereupon the subject may then expose the truth by
answering as though he had never given a negative reply. “Yes, I know
you have never done that, but how old were you the first time that you
did it?” is a question which, amazingly enough, may break down the cover-
up of a feeble-minded individual. With such a technique, on the other
hand, it is especially important to make sure that the subject’s final
admissions are not fictions which the interviewer has suggested to him.
If the subject corrects his original answers, it should be made easy for
him by ignoring the contradictions and receiving the new information as
easily as though it were his first reply to the question. On a few occasions
we have taken a complete history after we were convinced that it was a
fraud, then laid it aside and suggested to the subject that he “now give it to
us straight.” If the interviewer is sure enough of his interpretation of the
situation, the protests of the subject can be quickly silenced and he will
proceed to give a full and correct history. These falsified histories, in con-
junction with the corrected records, are especially valuable documents
because of the insight they give into an individual’s public acknowledg-
ments, in contrast to his actual behavior.
18. Forcing a subject. There are some persons who offer to contribute
histories in order to satisfy their curiosity, although they have no inten-
tions of giving an honest record of their sexual activities. As soon as one
recognizes such a case, he should denounce the subject with considerable
severity, and the interviewer should refuse to proceed with the interview.
Such an attack on a dishonest subject is quite contrary to the usual rules
for interviewing, and a procedure which we at first hesitated to employ in
the present study. We have, however, decided that it is a necessary tech-
56
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
nique in dealing with some individuals, particularly some older teen-age
males and some females in underworld groups. Failure to command the
situation in these cases would lower the community’s respect for the investi-
gator and make it impossible for him to secure honest histories from others
in the group. It must be understood by all concerned that giving a history
is a voluntary matter, but that as soon as an individual agrees to contribute
he assumes the responsibility of serving scientific accuracy. If the falsifica-
tion is not recognized until after the interview, and if the individual is of
importance in his community, the interviewer may well return to him and
demand that he correct the record. The list of persons who have been
forced in this fashion, in the present study, has included individuals in the
underworld, feeble-minded subjects, prison inmates, and one clergyman.
No history has ever been lost as a result of such action, and the study
has won a number of staunch friends because of our insistence on
scientific honesty.
19. Limits of the interview. In spite of the long list of items included
in the present study (Chapter 3) and in spite of the fact that each history
has covered five times as much material as in any previous study, numerous
students have suggested, and undoubtedly will continue to suggest after
the publication of the present volume, that we should have secured more
data in the fields of their special interests. Specifically it has been suggested
that the following matters should have had more thorough investigation:
Anthropology: Racial ancestry for several generations. A companion study on some
culture other than American. The correlation of somatotypes and behav ior
Endocrinology: Hormonal assays of at least some series of homosexual cases
Gynecology: Physical examinations of the genitalia of each female subject
Marriage Counseling: Non-sexual factors in marital adjustment
Medicine: More complete histories of health and disease, and genital examinations
of all male subjects
Psychoanalysis: More data on early childhood, parental relations, etc.
Psychology: More data on motivations and attitudes, and complete personality,
intelligence, and masculinity-femininity tests
Sociology : More detailed studies of cultural and community backgrounds ; a precise
economic rating
Urology: Sperm counts, more detailed genital measurements and records of defects
We are quite conscious of the limitations of the data which we have
secured, and would like to see intensive studies of all of the above subjects
in their relations to sex. It is, however, physically impossible to undertake
all collateral investigations while making a preliminary survey in any field.
This is a taxonomic survey of the sexual behavior of a whole great section
of mankind, and it has been necessary to limit the immediate study to
those things which can be covered in the twenty-eight years assigned to
the project. Speciahsts in psychoanalysis, in mental measurements, in
gynecology, and in various other fields, are the ones best equipped to
undertake intensive studies; but when we have made such suggestions, they
58
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
each subject’s attitudes toward his parents, toward masturbation, pre-
marital intercourse, sexual relations with prostitutes, and homosexual
experience; but we do not have much confidence in verbalizations of
attitudes which each subject thinks are his own, when they are, in actuality,
little more than reflections of the attitudes which prevail in the particular
culture in which he was raised. Often the expressed attitudes are in striking
contradiction to the actual behavior, and then they are significant because
they indicate the existence of psychic conflict and they throw light on the
extent to which community attitudes may influence an individual.
23. Interviewing young children. For children who are twelve or older,
it is usually feasible to adapt the regular interview to their vocabulary and
experience, securing quite satisfactory answers. For younger children,
especially for those under eight years of age, it is necessary to use a totally
different approach. An interview then becomes a social session involving
participation in the child’s ordinary activities. One of the parents has been
present in all of our interviews with these younger children. The technique
is one in which the interviewer looks at dolls, at toys of other sorts, joins
in games, builds picture puzzles, romps and does acrobatics with the
vigorous small boy, tells stories, reads stories, gets the child to tell stories,
draws pictures, gets the child to draw pictures, shares candies and cookies,
and withal makes himself an agreeable guest. Tucked into these activities
are questions that give information on the child’s sexual background. If
the picture book shows kittens putting on nightgowns for bed, the child
may be asked whether she wears nightgowns when she goes to bed. When
the interviewer tussles with the four-year old boy, he may ask him whether
he similarly tussles with the other boys in the neighborhood, and rapidly
follows up with questions concerning tussling with the girls, whether he
plays with any girls, whether he likes girls, whether he kisses girls.
There is no sequence of questions and one depends upon opportunities
that the play activities create for leading off into particular questions. The
child’s drawings are highly significant, as psychologists will understand.
Many a small child who cannot possibly describe the anatomical differences
between males and females will draw pictures of boys and girls which make
the distinction. An interview with a young child becomes an information
test rather than an examination of the child’s overt activity; and the reac-
tions of the child to the questions are more important than the specific
information which he supplies. The above-mentioned four-year old boy
may talk freely and spontaneously about the other boys that he plays with.
He may or may not so freely admit that there are girls in the neighborhood
with whom he also plays, and his embarrassment, his hesitancy, his dis-
turbed giggling, or his calm acceptance of the fact are the most important
things for the student of sexual behavior to note. Many of the adult
attitudes toward various items of sex are already discernible in the three-
INTERVIEWING
59
or four-year old’s history, and often the differences in attitudes of different
social levels are already reflected in the reactions of these young children.
A later volume will cover this aspect of the study.
THE INTERVIEWER’S BACKGROUND OF KNOWLEDGE
In general, it is difficult to explore effectively unless one has some under-
standing of the sort of thing that he is likely to find. One cannot intelli-
gently push questions on sexual behavior if he does not comprehend what
the possibilities of behavior may be. Inevitably these possibilities are
beyond the personal experience that any interviewer is likely to have had,
and consequently the prospective student of sexual behavior needs to learn
a great deal from the very considerable literature on sex, and a great deal
more from the experiences of the persons from whom he takes histories.
Specifically, one needs to comprehend the whole range of possible
techniques in each possible type of sexual behavior, including masturba-
tion, petting, intercourse, homosexual activities, animal contacts, relations
with prostitutes, etc. ; and one needs to understand the variety of psychic
problems that may be involved and the considerable social complications
that may develop in connection with each type of activity. There are
hundreds of possible positions in intercourse, and although the original
interview may be confined to questions concerning the six major possibili-
ties, the interviewer should be prepared to investigate the full diversity of
positions which an experimentally-inclined subject may use. There are
scores of variant techniques in the homosexual which should be investi-
gated when the opportunity comes to get such information. There are
hundreds of things that need to be known about prostitution before one is
ready to secure an adequate history from a prostitute. Lacking a knowledge
of the possibilities, the interviewer will get only the most routine record
from a person who in actuality could give a wealth of information.
Many of these variant and relatively rare situations provide most signifi-
cant data on the backgrounds of human sexual behavior. In many instances
variant types of behavior represent the basic mammalian patterns which
have been so effectively suppressed by human culture that they persist and
reappear only among those few individuals who ignore custom and deliber-
ately follow their preferences in sexual techniques. In some instances sexual
behavior which is outside the socially accepted pattern is the more natural
behavior (Chapter 6) because it is less affected by social restraints. The
clearest picture of learning in sexual behavior is to be found in the homo-
sexual; and if the homosexual had been ignored in the present study, we
should not have realized that similar learning processes are involved in the
development of the heterosexual. Histories of extra-marital intercourse
and the whole story of prostitution provide the best possible data on
factors affecting orgasm in the female, and they are replete with striking
60
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
instances of conditioning for particular situations. The interviewer who is
satisfied with covering the routine, and who is not prepared to explore into
the abundance of divergent fields, loses some of the scientifically richest
material that can be obtained in a case history study.
The background of knowledge which the interviewer has is of great
importance in establishing rapport with his subjects. The importance of
this cannot be overemphasized A subject is inevitably hesitant to discuss
things which seem to be both outside of the experience of the interviewer,
and beyond his knowledge. The narcissistic and masochistic male wdo has
greatly elaborated his masturbatory techniques realizes that he is so unu-
sual that he does not intend to admit anything beyond the simple fact of
masturbation, when he first comes into the interview; but the experienced
interviewer will discern that this is a special case when he asks the routine
questions concerning the subject’s interest in looking at his own genitalia
during masturbation, his interest in observing himself in a mirror, his
custom of nibbling or biting a partner during a sexual relation, his reac-
tions to being similarly bitten, his reactions to stories of torture, and his
reactions to being hurt himself. Although these questions do not come in a
block, but are spread throughout the length of the interview, the investi-
gator should be capable of putting the answers together and understanding
what they mean. Ninety per cent of all masturbation in the male is by a
single technique, but for this case that is now before him, the intcrview'cr
should know enough about other possiblp techniques to be able to con-
vince the subject that he is talking with a person who understands. The
subject must feel that the situation is not so new or so strange that the
interviewer will be startled at these things. He must be convinced that the
interviewer can take them as he did the routine material. The interviewer’s
background of knowledge is the key to obtaining a wealth of special
material that a routine schedule of questions may completely miss.
It is particularly important that the interviewer understand socially
taboo and illegal sexual activities, because these are the most dilficult
items on which to secure honest records. He needs to understand the sexual
viewpoint of the culture to which each of his subjects belongs. For instance,
it is impossible to get any number of histories from prostitutes, female or
male, unless they realize that the interviewer understands both the sexual
situations involved in prostitution, and the social organization of a prosti-
tute s life. A single phrase from an understanding interviewer is often
sufficient to make the subject understand this, and such an interviewer wins
a record where none would have been disclosed to the uneducated investi-
gator. A specific illustration will make this more apparent.
This is the case of the older Negro male whose first answers were wary
and evasive. When questioned concerning his occupation, he listed a variety
of minor jobs which, taken in connection with his manner of response,
INTERVIEWING
61
seemed to spell underworld activities. We followed up our clue by im-
mediately asking the subject whether he had ever been married. We were
not satisfied with his denial of marriage, and followed with a question as
to whether he had ever lived common law. The easy use of a vernacular
term made him feel freer to talk, and when he admitted that he had so
lived, we asked how old he was when he first lived common law. When he
said that he was then fourteen, our first suspicion concerning his under-
world activity was confirmed, and we immediately followed up by asking
how old the woman was. At this, he smiled and admitted that she was
thirty-five. Then we remarked, easily and without surprise: “She was a
hustler, wasn’t she?” This was the final step necessary for winning com-
plete confidence. The subject stopped short in his reply, opened his eyes
wide, smiled in a friendly fashion, and said, “Well, sir, since you appear to
know something about these things, I’ll tell you straight.” The extraordi-
nary record that we then got of his history as a pimp could not have been
obtained if the subject had not comprehended that we understood the
world in which he lived.
Very often the interviewer’s capacity to secure an accurate history
depends upon his knowledge of the correlations that usually exist between
certain items, and his readiness to demand an explanation of any incon-
sistency that appears in a particular history. To illustrate again: one starts
by asking the girl how old she was when she turned her first trick (but one
does not ask how old she was vdien she was first paid as a prostitute). She
is then asked how many of the tricks return after their first contacts with
her. Considerably later in the interview there is a question concerning the
frequency with which she rolls her tricks (robs her customers). The girl
who reports that few of the men ever return, and who subsequently says
that she never robs any of the men, needs to be caught up abruptly and
assured that you know that it doesn’t work that way. If she doesn’t roll
any of the men, why don’t they return to her? This question is likely to
bring a smile from the girl and an admission that since you appear to know
how these things work, she will tell you the whole story, which means that
she robs every time there is any possibility of successfully doing so.
The development of an interviewer is a long and slow process. In the
present study, for instance, it has involved a full year of training for each
interviewer before he was ready to go very far in taking histories. The code
had to be learned, and experience in its use was acquired by reading and
by re-recording histories that were already in the file. Further experience
was obtained by observing other interviewers in action and recording
simultaneously while they did the questioning. Conversely, the trainee was
given an opportunity to interview in the presence of the more experienced
members of the staff. Then there was an opportunity to re-take histories
which others had previously taken, and the trainee’s own subjects were
62
SEXUAL BERAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
given re-takes by a more experienced interviewer. When the new inter-
viewer is able to secure a record that is practically a perfect duplicate of
that obtained by the experienced person, he is in a position to take his-
tories that can be added to those obtained by the older inter\iewers.
Finally, each new interviewer has had to acquire a considerable kno\\ ledge
of what people can do sexually and demonstrate that he can draw on that
knowledge in the case of an unusual sort of history. After such a training
program, one may, or may not, be ready to face the variety of situations
that an investigator of human sexual behavior may meet.
The effectiveness of any interviewing technique is, in the last analysis,
to be determined by the quality of the data that are obtained. Wc have
described the techniques by means of which we have secured the data
which are presented in the remainder of this volume. Whether the tech-
niques which have been used in the present study would be equally effective
with other persons engaged in studying other problems, is a question v’hich
must be answered empirically by each investigator in connection with his
own special problems.
Chapter 3
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
Students who are interested in population analyses will want to examine
the technical procedures on which the present study has been based.
Because of the scope of the project, it has been necessary to work out some
original techniques in recording the material, in testing the validity of the
record, and in analyzing the data statistically. These matters will be of less
interest to those who are primarily concerned with the actual behavior of
the human male, and such readers may prefer to pass over this and the
next chapter and turn directly to the consideration of the sexual data which
begins with Chapter 5.
NATURE OF THE DATA
It has already been explained (Chapter 1) that the data in the present
study have all been gathered through personal interviews. In each history,
521 items have been explored; but since a subject is questioned only about
those things in which he has had specific experience, the actual number of
items covered in each case is usually nearer 300, and the number involved
in the histories of younger and less experienced individuals is often less
than that. The maximum list is shown in the following table. A few of the
items (those marked with asterisks) call for information which is procurable
only through physical examination or other special tests, and such items
are being investigated only on certain individuals who are available for
special study.
Items Covered on Sex Histories
I. Social and Economic Data
1. Sex
2. Age
3. Date of birth
4. Race
5. Geographic origin
State of subject's birth
Countries, states of residence
for a year or more
Parents’ place of birth
6. Rural-urban background
7. Religious background
Denominations involved
Degree of adherence
8. Occupational history
9. Economic status
10. Educational history
Years of schooling
Colleges attended
College majors
Age upon leaving school
Age while in high school
*11. Psychological test ratings
12. Recreational interests
Extracurricular activities in
school and college
Moving pictures
Dancing
Cards
Gambling
Smoking
Use of alcohol
* Items marked with asterisks (*) are checked only for selected series of individuals
who are available for special study.
63
64
I. Social and Economic Data {Confd)
12. Recreational interests {Confd)
Use of narcotics
Use of marihuana
Hunting
Fishing
Reading
Sewing
Cooking
Housework
Special interest in music
Special interest in sports
Other special interests and
sources of recreation
13. Athletic experience
On high school and college or-
ganized teams
14. Fraternity or sorority member-
ship in college
15. Home background
Parents’ occupational status
Parents’ economic status
Parents’ educational back-
ground
Parental marital history
Plappiness of adjustment
Separation or divorce
Parent-child relationships
Attachment to father
Attachment to mother
Brothers, sisters
Number
Ages
Companions at 10 and at 16
Number
Relative numbers, male and
female
16. Institutional history
Prison, orphanage, etc.
Army or Navy experience
17. Personality traits
II. Marital Histories (For Each Mar-
riage)
1. Marital status
2. Spouse’s history
Age
Length of previous acquaint-
ance
Length of engagement
Religious affiliations
Educational history
3. Age of each spouse at marriage
4. Years married, divorced, sepa-
rated, or widowed
5. Common law marriages
6. Offspring
Sex
Ages
Mother’s age at first childbirth
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
7. Abortions
Spontaneous
Induced
8. Marital adjustment
Rating
Sources of conflict
III. Sex Education
1. Sources of knowledge, ages when
learned
Pregnancy
Coitus
Fertilization
Menstruation
Venereal diseases
Prostitution
Contraception
Abortions
Male erection (in female his-
tories)
2. Parental contribution to sex edu-
cation
3. Experience in observing sex be-
havior
4. Experience with graphic depic-
tions of sexual activity
5. Formal sex education in school
and college
6. Attitudes on nudity
Of parents
Of subject
IV. Physical and Piiysioiogic Data
^ 1. General development and health
Height
Weight, and maximum ever
reached
*Pulse rate
*Blood pressure and BMR
Thickness of lips
Handedness
History of chronic illnesses and
handicaps
History of venereal disease
2. Adolescence: ages at onset of
Erotic responsiveness
First orgasm (and its source)
Pubic hair growth
Breast development (in females)
Breast knots (in adolescent
males)
Menstruation
Voice change
Onset of rapid growth
Completion of growth
3. Genital characters: male
Testes
Descent
Position (of right and left)
*Size
History of injury
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
65
IV. Physical and Physiologic Data
(Confd)
3. Geaital characters : male (Confd)
Penis (subject’s self measure-
ment)
Length and circumference,
normal and erect
Angle, erect
Curvature, erect
Direction of carriage, erect
History of circumcision
Age involved
Presence of frenulum
Extent of foreskin
Phimosis
Hypospadia
Pre-coital mucous secretion
* Sperm examination
Erection
Speed
Presence of pulsation
Potency in coitus
Duration
Mormng erections, frequency
4. Genital characters: female
Clitoris
*Size
^Adherence of foreskin
Hymen
Status
History of rupture
Vaginal mucous secretions *
Amount
Variation in menstrual cycle
5. Menstruation
Age at menarche
Length and regularity of men-
strual cycle
Duration of flow
Pains
History of menopause
6. Erotic responsiveness
Auto-erotic
Observing self in mirror
Observing genitalia
Exhibitionism
Homo-erotic
Thinking of own sex
Observing own sex
Observing erect genitalia
Observing buttocks
Burlesque shows
Nude art
Obscene stories
Erotic literature
Erotic moving pictures
Erotic photographs and
drawings
Dancing
Hetero-erotic
Thinking of other sex
Observing other sex
Nude art
Burlesque shows
Erotic pictures
Obscene stories
Erotic literature
Moving pictures
Dancing
Physical contacts
Biting
Being bitten
Zoo-erotic
Observing animal coitus
Physical contacts with ani-
mals
Non-sexual stimuli
Music
Alcohol
Motion
Pain
Sadistic situations
Masochistic situations
Other emotional situation
(especially in children)
V. Nocturnal Sex Dreams
1. Ages involved
2. Frequencies of dreams with or-
gasm
3. Frequencies of dreams without
orgasm
4. Content of dreams
Homo-, hetero-, or zod-erotic
Other
VI. Masturbation
1. Ages involved, pre- and post-
adolescent
2. Sources of learning
Conversation and reading
Observation
Participation, heterosexual or
homosexual
Self discovery
3. Frequencies
Maximum per week
Means at each age
4. Techniques
For male
Manual
Frictional
Oral
Special devices
Urethral insertions
For female
Breast
Clitoral
Vaginal insertion
Frictional
SEXUAL BEELWIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
66
VI. Masturbation {Confd)
4. Techniques {Confd)
Thigh pressure
Ure'thral insertions
With devices
5. Time required for orgasm
6. Accompanying imagery
Self
Homosexual
Heterosexual
Zoo-erotic
Sado-masochistic
7. Subject’s evaluation
Period involving fear or con-
flict
Sources of resolution of conflict
Rejection; period involved,
reasons for
Estimate of moral, psychic,
physical consequences
VII. Heterosexual History
1. Pre-adolcscent play
Ages involved, frequencies
Companions: ages and number
Techniques
Exhibition
Physical exploration
Vaginal insertion
Urethral insertion
Mouth-genital contact
Coitus
2. Pre-marital petting
Ages involved
Frequencies
Companions
Number in grade and high
school
Number between high school
and marriage
Techm’ques
General body contact
Lip kissing
Tongue kissing
Breast manipulation, manual
Breast manipulation, oral
Manual manipulation, male
genitalia
Manual manipulation, fe-
male genitalia
Mouth-genital contact on
male, on female
Genital apposition without
entry
Orgasm without intercourse,
in male, in female
Frequencies
Ages involved
After-effects
Nervous disturbance
Genital cramps
Masturbation
3. Attitudes on pre-marital coitus
Souices of restraint
Moral
Lack of opportunity
Lack of interest
Fear of pregnancy
Fear of venereai disease
Fear of social disapproval
Desire for \irginitv in hancee
Desire for marriage
Desire for children, number
desired
Intention to have, or to con-
tinue coitus
Evaluation of ovvm coital ex-
perience
4. Experience in pre-marital coitus
Ages involved
First experience
Age and nature of partner
Virginity of partner
Speed of orgasm
Physical satisfaction
Frequencies in coitus
Partners
Total number
Prostitutes or companions
Age range
Youngest since subject was
eighteen
Age preference
Marital status
Consanguinity
Virginity
Resulting pregnancies, births,
abortions
Ages involved
Legal aspects
Financial aspects
Arrangements
Places utilized for coitus
Opportunity and desire for
nudity
5. Marital intercourse (separate rec-
ords for each marriage)
First experience
Age of each spouse
Virginity of partner
Speed of orgasm
Physical satisfaction
Lapse between marriage and
first coitus
Frequencies
Maximum ever
Means at various periods
Relation of sexual and marital
adjustments
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
67
VIL Heterosexual History (Confd)
6. Extra-marital relations
Ages involved
Partners
Number
Age range
Marital status
Companions or prostitutes
Frequencies
Extra-marital coitus
Extra-marital petting with-
out intercourse
Spouse’s knowledge of the
intercourse
Effect on marriage
Desire for further experience
7. Post-marital intercourse
- Ages involved
Partners
Number
Age range
Marital status
Companions or prostitutes
Frequencies
8. Intercourse with prostitutes
Ages involved
Number of prostitutes
Frequencies
Mouth-genital techniques
Comparisons with non-prosti-
tutes
9. Coital techniques *
Pre-coital play
Duration
Lip kissing
Tongue kissing
Breast manipulation: man-
ual
Breast manipulation : oral
Genital manipulation: man-
ual, by male and female
Genital manipulation: oral,
by male and female
Frequency of orgasm
Coital positions: relative fre-
quencies and preferences
Male superior
Female superior
Side
Sitting
Standing
Rear entry
Anal
Other variations
Male orgasm
Duration of intromission
Multiple climaces
Female orgasm
Frequency
Multiple climaces
Date of first orgasm in coitus
Relation to coital techniques
Nudity
Frequency
Attitudes
Preference for light or dark
Fantasies during coitus
10. Contraceptive history: pre-mari-
tal, marital, extra-marital ;
techniques employed, satis-
faction and effectiveness
Condom
Source
Testing
Lubrication
Breakage
Diaphragm or cap
Source
Type
Withdrawal
Douche alone
Materials employed
Safe period
Jelly alone
Other techniques
11. Group heterosexual activities
Circumstances, frequency
Number and nature of partners
Participation in strip poker
Fraternal and other group ini-
tiation activities
Observation of coitus
Of parents
Of friends
Of professional exhibition-
ists
12. Heterosexual prostitution (the
subject as prostitute; males
or females as heterosexual
prostitutes)
Ages involved
First experience
Occasion
'Partner
Pay involved
Frequencies per week
During first year
During subsequent periods
Maximum number of partners
per day, per week
Average number of partners
per day and per week, at
various periods
Nature of partners
Total number
Age: range, average
Number who return
Longest affair
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
68
VIL Heterosexual History (Confd)
12. Heterosexual prostitution (the
subject as prostitute; males
or females as heterosexual
prostitutes) {Confd)
Love affairs
Percent married
Number of virgins
Occupations
Racial groups
Sources of contacts
Personal introductions by
friends
In established houses of
prostitution
Ages of subject
Number of houses involved
Size of houses
Geographic location
Physical or other force
used to hold prostitutes
In own established house
Time involved
Geographic location
Number of persons em-
ployed
Street solicitation
Percent of rejects
Percent causing trouble
Petting techniques
Partners active in petting (in
9 techniques shown in
VII-2)
Subject active (in same 9
techniques)
Coital positions (as shown in
¥11-9)
Orgasm, frequencies for sub-
ject
Prophylaxis and contraception
Examination of partners
Condoms
Antiseptic douche
Other prophylactics
Variant techniques
Anal coitus
Anilinctus
Flagellation
Other sadism
Masochism
Scatology
Voyeurism
Fetishism
Group activities
Age of subject
* Frequency
Number of persons in group
involved
Psychologic reactions
Exhibitionistic activity
Ages involved
Frequency
Sizes of audiences
Character of audiences
Psychologic reaction of sub-
ject
On first occasion
On subsequent occasions
Pay: range, average
Techniques of the exhibition
Income from prostitution
Range of payment
Average payment
Average earned per week,
per month
Percent paid to houses
Percent paid to procurer
Rolling
Frequency
Range of intake
Average intake
Social involvements
With friends
With families
With police
Frequency of arrest and
conviction
For prostitution
For rolling
For other concomitants
* Legal penalties
Bases of dismissal
Amounts paid for protec-
tion
Socio-sexual background
Factors involved in begin-
ning prostitution
Chief factors for continu-
ing prostitution
Extent of pleasure derived
from sexual relation
Plan for continuance of pros-
titution
Psychologic conflicts of pros-
titute
Effects on marriage
Willingness to recommend
prostitution to others
VIII. Homosexual History
1. Pre-adolescent play
Ages involved, frequencies
Companions
Ages
Number
Techniques
Exhibition
Manual manipulation
Vaginal or urethral insertion
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
69
VIII. Homosexual History {Confd)
1. Pre-adolescent play (Co/irW)
Mouth-genital contact
Anal
2. Post-adolescent experience
Ages involved
First experience
Age
Partner
Age
Race
Relation to subject
Circumstances
Place of contact
Initiation of approach
Techniques employed,
passive, active, or mu-
tual
Financial arrangements
Satisfaction for subject
Age of first experience with
each technique, passive
and active
Manual
Oral
Anal
Breast (for female)
Femoral
Full body contact
Frequency
During first year
Maximum, ever, per day ^
Maximum, ever, per week
Average per week during
each year
Total number of contacts
Partners
Total number
Age range
Comparisons with age of
subject
Age preferences
Reasons for age preferences
Social position
Students in grade school
Students in high school
Students in college
Clergy
Teachers
Art groups
Professional persons
Business groups
Armed forces
Laboring groups
Law enforcement officers
Highest position held
Number married
Number without previous
homosexual experience
Number of oncers
Duration of longest affairs
Relations involving love and
affection
Percentage of approaches
which are rejected
Races involved: white, Ne-
gro, others
Techniques
Petting, passive and active
Lip kissing
Tongue kissing
Body kissing
Breast manipulation, ma-
ual
Breast manipulation, oral
Genital mampulation,
manual
Genital manipulation, oral
Flagellation on back, but-
tocks, genitalia
Urethral insertions
Anilinctus
Nudity
Positions involved (includ-
ing 69)
Preference for light or dark
Places involved
Subject’s orgasm
Frequency by each technique
or by spontaneous ejac-
ulation
Partner’s orgasm
Frequency by each technique
or by spontaneous ejac-
ulation
3. Psychic reactions
Preferences for
Masculine or feminine type
of partner
Partner of particular height
Partner of particular weight
Partner of particular com-
plexion
Particular amount of body
hair
Particular genital charac-
teristics
Particular breast character-
istics
Circumcised partner
Other physical qualities of
partner
Reaction to odor and taste,
genitalia and semen
4. Sources of contacts
Personal friends
Pick-ups
Street
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
70
VIII. Homosexual History {Confd)
4. Sources of contacts {Confd)
Park
Hotel
Theatre
Tavern
Night club ,
Restaurant
Beach
Transportation terminal
Public bath
Hitch hiking
Other places
5. Social conflicts
Difficulties met in home, school,
community, business
Arrests, court action, penal
history
Blackmail, active and passive
Robbery, active and passive
Restriction to homosexual asso-
ciates
6. Homosexual prostitution
Subject as prostitute
Frequency
Situations
Amounts involved
Long-time maintenance as
prostitute
Subject paying prostitutes
Frequency
Situations
Amounts involved
Long-time maintenance of
prostitutes
7. Subject’s self analysis
Recognition of physical stig-
mata
Carnage and mo\ements
Voice
Hip mo\ements
Walk
Dress
Make-up
Interest in trans\estism
Other qualities
Conflicts and regrets
Expectancy for continuation
Expectancy for transfer to
heterosexual
Recommendation of the homo-
sexual for others
Subject’s analysis of factors
involved
Subject's estimate of extent of
homosexuality
Among males, females
Among Negroes, whites
IX. Animal Contaci's
1. Ages involved
2. Frequencies
With orgasm
Without orgasm
3. Animal species involved, with
pieferences
4. Techniques
Masturbation of animal
Vaginal coitus
Mouth-genital contact
Passive
Active
Each item in the above list has been strictly defined in order to standard-
ize the data used in the study; but the body of definitions is, unfortunately,
too large to include in the present volume. As previously indicated (Chap-
ter 2), the sequence of topics actually used in an interview is varied in
accordance with the age, social background, and experience of the partic-
ular subject, and the sequence shown in the above list has never been used.
Neither does the sequence in the list correspond with the one shown in the
coded form of Figure 2. Although many of the items in the list are covered
by single questions, and although an occasional question may elicit infor-
mation on two or more points, it often takes more extended inquiry to
secure particular answers. Consequently, the number of questions asked
may considerably exceed the number of items which are covered. It has
already been noted (Chapter 2) that additional questions may be asked of
subjects who have been involved in activities which are not covered in the
routine interviews. Persons with experience in particular situations, as in
the armed forces, in prisons, CCC camps, and other institutions, are
questioned in particular detail concerning those periods.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
71
CODING
The data obtained in each interview are recorded directly in the sort of
code which is shown in Figure 2. No record is kept in any other form, and
the coded data have never been translated into any longhand or typewritten
account. Coding at the time of the interview serves several functions: (1)
It facilitates recording, making it possible to secure a complete history
without slowing up an interview, and without losing rapport with the
subject. (2) It preserves the confidence of the record, and this is particularly
important in a sex study. (3) It facilitates the transference of the data from
the original record sheet to punched cards for statistical analyses. (4) It
increases the accuracy of the coding because the subject is present at the
time of the operation. Where there is uncertainty about the classification
of the data, additional questions may be asked and final determinations
may be made on the spot. When coding is delayed until after a longhand
record is carried back to the laboratory, the investigator too often finds
that there are insufficient data to determine what classifications are
involved. (5) Coding is of supreme importance in conserving space, making
it possible to put the whole of the basic history on a single sheet, or on two
sheets in the case of individuals who have especial experience in pre-
marital intercourse, in extra-marital intercourse, in the homosexual, or in
prostitution. Where the original record is made in longhand which is
subsequently copied onto typewritten sheets, or even where the basic
record is made in a standard or special system of shorthand, each history
may extend over twenty, or thirt;^, or in some studies over a hundred or
more pages. Coding and punching cards from such data are slow and some-
times well-nigh impossible procedures. Moreover, it is always difficult for
the investigator to comprehend the whole of such a history when it is
spread over so many pages. If the record is confined to a single sheet, it is
possible to correlate any item with any and every other item by a rapid
sweep of one’s eye over the page of simple and precisely placed
symbols. (6) It facilitates and encourages the systematic coverage of the
same items on each and every history. At the end of an interview, a rapid
examination of the page will show what items have been missed, and the
blank places can be filled before the subject has departed.
The specific code used in the present study cannot be explained because
of the necessity for maintaining the confidence of the record. However,
certain of the principles involved can be described for the benefit of those
who are interested in developing coding devices in other studies :
1. The record is made on a ruled form which provides a number of
blocks somewhat in excess of the number of items on the basic history
(Figure 2). The form used in the present study is a standard Keuffel and
Esser product (General Data Sheet No. 358-230), with over-printing done
on our especial order.
72
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
2. Each aspect of the sex history is recorded in a particular block or
portion of a particular block. The significance of any symbol depends,
consequently, upon its position in a particular block on the page.
3. Each block has its own system of symbols, its own independent code.
o
o
o
o
4ia
N\
lU- S
IX
n
6
5^4 3
w
X - 3/^
V
5
1c> ctw.fc> X
f V5\
o <>,»>< X.C
*tl 9©)3 v^ '
X
7 +
X
y
X
V
.L- . _ .
s/ *t-4
—
!
X
✓
X X”
-^4
--- ”-j
y
X
1*1
<
o
di
'f -/po
a
o
X
'x
T- IT-
Vc.
1
A.-clA
—
X
__ —
—
jC-- TvV
X \ \ d'ac
X tr X
X 1
VC
T
K
jS^rr
<
—
X
,
X
v/
X
3 ^
3/ f V
X» H
'7 -
o
M
X
X
2_
5-W
Mr!
v/»/
-
I
»
✓
X ' " 1
X
X “7
—
X
X i
X
X v"
X
1
O
y~
v/— *
✓
(O
M
X
Vv/ y
I
X
2x
a
X
X
V. '
o
C -d
t/
✓ " -
X
TP
(O
v'
4
(73-. PCO
1
V
Xn/
P J
—
y- - (
dL
•i. TA
X
1
—
y
—
R
v/
(7-ViS->d
^ 1
X
v/
✓
•7 !
X
1 f- sT” 1
\ !
— y
a-s 1
✓
1-
v' iw -d ;
X
y
—
r "
1
y
X
X
>/ - !
'
—
9
—
0)1 i
1
1
X ‘
X
a.
X
x\
X
~^7
[
’
X
-la =7/
"1
-h3
11 N\ ^
-1? = t-V
X
n
A r
1 L.^T
X 1 1
4..y-
X
X
I
X i 1
fA
o
X
X :ir“T 1
2< X
ZxT
X y/ \ 1
X X V
SAJ
X V"
c.\jif Hvj ^
— — 5,
]
■21 C H5 1 j
CL f >; V*- ^;vr MJr
•. IS- X X.
6 15. Ini
\vs5
o
Figure 2. Sample history in code
4. In each block, the available symbols are sufficient in number to
designate all of the categories into which the particular data will be classi-
fied during subsequent analyses. It is necessary to anticipate the whole
array of possible classifications, including those that lie beyond usual
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
73
experience. The code used in the present study is so flexible that it has been
possible to handle every type of overt activity and every sort of attitudinal
situation which we have attempted to record in the 12,000 histories now at
hand.
5. Since this study has been primarily concerned with percentages of
incidence, with frequency distributions, graded scales of attitudes, intensi-
ties of response, and other questions of degree, the code provides for a
considerable series of classifications of each item. Rarely is it a matter of
alternative possibilities — of a yes or a no. It is the usual statistical experi-
ence that six to a dozen or twenty categories, and occasionally a few more,
provide the number of points best designed to establish a curve; and in
most instances there should be that many possibilities in the code for each
item, in each block.
6. Where the nature of the code allows, as in using numbers to desig-
nate the ages or years involved, there is no objection to recording more
detail than is used in the subsequent analyses. It not infrequently happens
that such detail proves useful in making finer calculations than were
originally planned.
7. The symbols used in coding data in the present study have included
various mathematical signs (±, — , X, V? 0, V V) and numbers for
recording ages, the years involved, frequencies, and still other items. In
addition, we have used numbers, letters, symbols derived from standard
practice in biology, chemistry, physics, and the other sciences, and some
unique symbols developed especially for this study.
8. There is no written key to the code that has been used in the present
study, and the strict maintenance of that rule has been necessary for pre-
serving the confidence of the record.
9. In consequence, each interviewer has had to memorize the code and
learn, through considerable drilling, the significance of each block, and
the symbols pertaining thereto.
10. In coding items that are not discrete in nature, it is necessary to
make precise definitions to which each coded symbol should apply. The
coding done by different interviewers on a project *must constantly be
checked to provide strict standardization. This is especially important in
coding attitudes, intensities of response, and other non-discrete materials.
For this reason in the present study a minimum of such items has been
employed, and for these items the judgments made by the several inter-
viewers have been repeatedly analyzed and coordinated.
SUPPLEMENTARY DATA
While most of the material in the present volume is based upon the data
which have been routinely secured in the interviews, considerable attention
has been given to securing supplementary information by other techmques.
74
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
These additional data have come from a considerable list of subjects with
whom lona-time social contacts have been maintained, in some cases for
o
as long as seven and eight years. Time has been spent in their homes, and
visits have been made with them to the homes of their friends, to theatres
and to concerts, to night-clubs and to taverns, and to their oilier places ot
recreation. During these contacts, there have been abundant opportunities
to observe how these individuals react to a variety of social, professional,
academic, and other situations. With many of them there has been a con-
siderable correspondence which now supplements their original histories
with extensive day by day records of their activities, and of their thinking
on various aspects of sex. In a number of cases there are se\ cral hundred
pages, and in each of two cases there are over a thousand pages of such
supplementary material. These latter constitute more extensive sexual his-
tories than any which have yet been published on particular individuals.
For some subjects there are photographic collections of their imaginative
drawings, and scrapbooks; there are photographic collections of the com-
plete artistic output of some of the artists who have contributed to the
study, and complete collections of the books written by certain other
subjects. For others who have had contact with public agencies, we ha\e
transcripts of the court records, institutional records, data from social
agencies, and other material. While these supplementary records have con-
tributed little to the statistical tabulations of data, they have provided a
considerable portion of the detail which is given in this volume on the
physical nature of sexual arousal and 6f orgasm, and on the psychologic
and social concomitants of sexual behavior, particularly in relation to the
factors which motivate and control the activities.
A number of persons have turned in sexual calendars and diaries
showing their day to day activities over some period of time. The calendars
now at hand cover periods which range from six months to more than
thirty-five years in length. They admirably supplement the information
routinely obtained on the standard histories. They provide data on the
weekly periodicity which a seven-day calendar and the consequent social
organization impose upon many human activities, as Havelock Ellis
pointed out for a. group of diaries which he studied (Ellis 1897, 1936
Edit.) ; and they clearly demonstrate the monthly periodicity of sexual re-
sponsiveness in the female, and the lack of any such periodicity in the male.
As soon as there are enough of these calendars, it will be possible to run
correlations between the precise records they supply and the estimated
frequencies of activities obtained in the regular interviews; and it is un-
fortunate that there are not enough of the calendars yet available to make
the analyses in the present volume. Persons who have kept records or who
are willing to begin keeping day by day calendars showing the frequencies
and the sources of their sexual outlet, are urged to place the accumulated
data at our disposal.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
75
Throughout this study, especial attention has been given to the com-
munities in which the subjects of this study have hved. Contacts have been
maintained with some of the communities for months or even several
years. In that way it has been possible to win confidences from persons
who hesitated to contribute their histories when we first arrived. In time
one becomes accepted in the homes of a community and becomes ac-
quainted with the daily lives of its individual members. One becomes
acquainted with the general attitudes of the community on matters of sex
and learns something about the community backgrounds which determine
the early development of individual patterns of sexual behavior, and their
fixation in the adult histories. One begins to understand how the church,
the schools, political leaders, social agencies, and other groups affect the
community’s thinking on these matters. One learns how far each commun-
ity goes in controlling the sexual activities of its individual members, and
how its law enforcement officials act when sexual situations are involved.
The communities with which we have maintained such long-time contacts
include:
College communities connected with a variety of institutions
Several upper middle-class groups
Several professional groups
A remote and isolated rural community
A concentrated and rather large homosexual community in a large city
A Negro underworld community in a large city
Several penal institutional groups
A white male underworld group in 9 . large city
THE TWELVE-WAY BREAKDOWN
It has previously been pointed out that the analyses in the present study
have depended upon successive breakdowns of the total population on the
basis of twelve biologic and socio-economic factors. Each of the ultimate
groups resulting from these breakdowns is, in consequence, homogeneous
in respect to these twelve items. The exact nature of each item involved is
shown in the following tabulation.
1. Sex. A 2-way breakdown into male and female populations.
2. Race-cultural Group. An 11 -way or further breakdown into groups
which are :
(1) American and Canadian White
(2) American and Canadian Neg^ro
(3) British (Great Britain)
(4) Western and Northern European
(5) Mediterranean European
(6) Latin American
(7) Slavic
(8) Oriental (Asia)
16
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
(9) Filipino
(10) Polynesian
(11) American Indian
There are still other groups to be considered and further breakdowns of
the above which can be made whenever the material becomes available.
The question is one of race-cultural backgrounds, rather than racial back-
ground in the exclusively biologic sense; and the subject’s place of birth,
his place of residence during childhood and adolescent years, and the
ancestral home of the parents decide the race-cultural group to which he
belongs. An individual may be placed in two or more of these groups if
he has lived for appreciable periods of time in two or more of the areas,
particularly if he has ever had an adolescent background which is definitely
different from that of the United States in which, he is now living.
The present volume is confined to a record on American and Canadian
whites, but we have begun accumulating material which wall make it
possible to include the American and Canadian Negro groups in later
publications. Several hundred histories from still other race-cultural groups
begin to show the fundamental differences which exist betw^een American
and other patterns of sexual behavior, but the material is not yet sufficient
for publication.
3. Marital Status. A 3-way breakdown into single, married, and post-
marital groups. The single persons have never been married. The married
persons were living, at the time they contributed their histories, either in
formally consummated legal marriages or in common-law relations that
had lasted for a year or more. The post-marital cases w'ere widow'ed,
divorced, or permanently separated from their former spouses.
4. Age. An 18~way breakdown by five-year periods, ranging from a
group which has its maximum age at 5, to a group wath a maximum age
of 90. The chief difficulty involved here is the existence of three systems for
designating age. Each system is more or less confined to a particular social
level, persons of lower levels usually calculating in terms of their forth-
coming birthdays, while better educated persons are in the habit of express-
ing their ages in terms of past birthdays. Some persons (perhaps most
commonly in the middle classes) express their ages in terms of their nearest
birthdays, and this is the system used by the insurance companies and by
many government agencies. The error introduced by these diverse systems
is rarely compensated for in the literature of the social sciences (Pearl
1940: 74). Ages given in institutional records are likely to be in error by a
year, especially where the data apply to lower level inmates. Throughout
the present study an attempt has been made to determine the precise year
of birth and to calculate all ages as from the past birthday; but this has
not always been possible and, consequently, differences in mean ages of
two groups that are not more than a year apart are never to be taken as
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
77
significant, because of the uncertainty involved in the original record
(also cf, U. S. Census 1940: Populat. 4 (l):2-4).
5. Age at Adolescence. A 6-way or further breakdown based on the age
of the subject at the time of the onset of adolescence. The determination
of the year involved in the onset of adolescence is described in Chapters
5 and 9. The breakdown is as follows: Those who start adolescence at 10
or earlier, at 1 1, at 12, at 13, at 14, and at 15 and later.
6. Educational Level. A 9-way breakdown on the basis of the number of
years in a completed educational history, by two-year periods. This classi-
fication can be made for those who have permanently stopped their school-
ing before contributing a history, but it cannot be made for those who are
still in school. Specifically, the groups have had the following years of
schooling: 0-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14, 15-16, 17 plus. The last
group includes ail those who have done any graduate work. The classifica-
tion depends upon the educational level attained by the individual, rather
than upon the number of years required to reach that level. On the other
hand, ever since state laws have required a minimum number of years of
school attendance, there have been school systems which pass pupils
through the grades and even into high school without respect to their
actual achievements, and it is occasionally possible to find an iUiterate or
even a feeble-minded child who has been in the eighth or ninth grade in
school. In such cases, the educational rating of the individual should be
lowered to a grade approximating the one in which he could perform
satisfactory work. In cases of persons who have acquired their education
through private tutoring or through their own independent reading and
travel, as sometimes happens in families of upper social levels, the educa-
tional rating should approximate the level to which the individual’s
achievements would have carried him in a formal school system. There are,
however, few instances where it is necessary to make such arbitrary adjust-
ments and, on the whole, the raw rating of an educational level is the best
single indicator of the social stratum to which an individual belongs
(Chapter 10).
7. Occupational Class of Subject. A 10-way breakdown based upon the
classes developed by Chapin (1933) and W. Lloyd Warner (Warner and
Lunt 1941, 1942, Warner and Srole 1945), and modified by other workers
(Hollingshead 1939). This is an attempt to designate the .social status of an
individual by measuring the prestige of the work in which he is engaged.
Persons within each occupational class not only work together, but carry
on their social activities together. They are less often involved in social
activities with persons of other occupational classes. The classification
does not depend upon the individual’s income. Warner’s original classifi-
cation has been adapted to the needs of the present study in the following
manner:
78
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
(0) DEPENDENTS. If the Subject is an adult who is dependent upon the
State or upon a person other than a spouse for his or her support, the
classification is 0. If the individual is a minor dependent upon his parents
or other guardians, the classification is shown as a 0, with the classification
of the parents shown in parenthesis, e.g., 0 (5) for a minor from a home
which belongs to class 5. The classification of a dependent wife is that of
her husband.
(1) UNDERWORLD. Deriving a significant portion of the income from
illicit activities: e.g., bootleggers, con men, dope peddlers, gamblers,
hold-up men, pimps, prostitutes, etc.
(2) DAY LABOR. Persons employed by the hour for labor which does not
require special training: e.g., construction labor, domestic help, factory
labor, farm hands, junk and trash collectors, laundry help, maids, messenger
boys, porters, railroad section hands, stevedores, WPA labor, etc.
(3) SEMI-SKILLED LABOR. Persons employed by the hour or on other
temporary bases for tasks involving some minimum of training: e.g., semi-
skilled labor in factories or on construction jobs, bartenders, bell hops,
blacksmiths, cooks (some), elevator operators, filling station attendants,
firemen on railroads, firemen in cities, marines, miners, policemen, prize
fighters, sailors, showmen, soldiers, stationary engineers, street car con-
ductors, taxi drivers, truck drivers, ushers, etc.
(4) SKILLED LABOR. Persons involved in manual activities which require
training and experience. Employed either by the hour or more often for
piece work, or on salary: e.g., skilled workmen as defined by labor unions,
in factories or on construction jobs, athletes (professional), bakers, barbers,
bricklayers (skilled), carpenters (skilled), cooks (skilled), dressmakers
(skilled), electricians, farm owners (some^ foremen in factories, linemen,
machinists, masons, mechanics (skilled), plumbers, printers, radio techni-
cians, tool and die makers, welders, etc.
(5) LOWER WHITE COLLAR GROUP. Persons involved in work which is not
primarily manual but which more particularly depends upon their educa-
tional background and mental capacity: e.g,, army officers (some), bank
clerks, bookkeepers, clergymen (in smaller churches), clerks in offices,
clerks in better stores, express and postal agents, salesmen (some), secre-
taries, small store owners, small business operators, stenographers, farmers
(some), insurance agents, musicians (some), nurses, navy officers (some),
political officers (some), railroad conductors, teachers in grade schools,
laboratory technicians, etc,
(6) UPPER WHITE COLLAR GROUP. Including persons of some importance
in the business group, army officers (some), bank officials, certified public
accountants, clergymen (most), better store owners, better actors, artists,
and musicians, navy officers (some), school teachers in high schools.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
79
school principals, farm and ranch owners (of better rank), management in
construction and other businesses, higher political officers, some lawyers,
some dentists, most salesmen, welfare workers, etc.
(7) PROFESSIONAL GROUP. Persons holding positions that depend upon
professional training which is usually beyond the college level: e.g., college
professors, trained lawyers, physicians, dentists (with better training),
trained engineers ; some actors, artists, musicians, and writers; some clergy-
men, etc.
(8) BUSINESS EXECUTIVE GROUP. Primarily executive officers in larger
businesses, and persons holding high social rank because of financial
status or because of hereditary family position, including persons in the
Social Register.
(9) EXTREMELY WEALTHY GROUP. Living primarily on income and
occupying high social status because of their monied position and/or their
family backgrounds.
8. Occupational Class of Parent. A 10-way breakdown on the same basis
as that for the occupational class of the subject. Significant as a measure of
the childhood and educational backgrounds of the subject.
9. Rural-Urban Background. A 5-way breakdown as follows :
(0) Never lived on an operating farm
(1) Incidental residence of at least a year, but not for any long period
of years in rural areas*
(2) Primarily rural, up to 11 years of age
(3) Primarily rural, between 12 and 18 years of age
(4) Primarily rural, after 18 years of age
The classification gives an opportunity to measure the effect of rural
backgrounds during those periods in childhood and adolescence which are
most important in the development of sexual patterns. A single individual
may fall into more than one of these classes. Town farmers who live on
farms which are operated for them by other persons, while they maintain
businesses and social interests in the city, are not treated as rural.
10. Religious Groups. A 3-way or further breakdown into Protestant,
Catholic, Jewish and other groups. Based upon membership, attendance,
or any degree of activity or nominal connection with a religious group, in
any period of the subject’s life. A particular subject may belong to more
than one such group within his lifetime.
11. Religious Adherence. A 4-way breakdown showing the degree of
active connection with a particular religious group, as follows :
(1) Actively concerned in a religious group, either as a regular attendant
or as an active participant in organized church activities. For devout
Cathohcs, frequency of attendance at confession, and for Orthodox Jews,
4
Figure 3. Principle involved in a twelve-way breakdown
Showing items used in the analyses in the present study.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
81
frequency of attendance at the Synagogue and the extent to which the
Orthodox observances are followed, provide measures of the individual’s
concern with his religion.
(2) Fairly frequent church attendance or activity.
(3) Infrequent church attendance or activity.
(4) Practically no church attendance or activity, although the individ-
ual’s background may still be classifiable as Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish.
12. Geographic Origin, A breakdown which will be made as soon as
the sample in the present study is sufficiently large. Residence is defined as
continuous living in a given place for a period of at least twelve months.
A single individual may, therefore, claim several places of residence in a
lifetime. The state of residence for the most continuous period of time,
and the place of residence during the childhood and adolescent years, will
probably represent the most significant part of the data.
Successive breakdowns on these twelve items give a geometrically
expanding array (Figure 3) which terminates in a great series of popula-
tions, each of which is homogeneous for all of the items involved in the
breakdown. With only 12,000 cases now in hand, it has not been possible
to make more than a 6- or 7-way breakdown at any point in the analysis,
and there are some places at which it is impossible to make anything
beyond a 5-way breakdown. As the study progresses, it should be possible
and will be desirable to make th^ 12-way breakdowns outlined above.
Psychologic measurements of mental capacity have been available on
two or three thousand of the persons who have contributed to this study.
Unfortunately, the tests used have been so diverse, and administered by
such a diversity of testers (in schools, colleges, and mental and penal
institutions) that it has proved difficult to coordinate the measurements.
An investigation of the possibility of a correlation between mental level
and patterns of sexual behavior should be undertaken in the further
development of the present research program.
The number of groups in the theoretic 12-way breakdown outlined
above is nearly two billion, and a complete survey of the whole population
would, obviously, be impossible if there were no means of reducing the
problem. Fortunately, many of the theoretic groups are non-existent, or
so rare in the American population that they are unimportant for study.
For instance, it would never be possible to secure a statistically good sample
of Orthodox Jewish males who were Negro, single, between the ages of
eighty-five and ninety, illiterate, living in rural areas, and belonging to the
Social Register. Again, the problem may be reduced by confining the study
for the time being to American and Canadian white and Negro groups, and
the theoretic eleven race-cultural groups are thus reduced to two. Since the
age groups between 10 and 60 are the ones most frequently met with, the
82
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
age breakdown may be limited to 1 1 instead of the theoretic 1 8 groups.
In some other classifications, the problem can similarly be confined. Pre-
liminary experience indicates that some groups are so similar that they
may be thrown together for analyses. Thus the theoretic 9-way breakdown
on the basis of the subject’s educational history can become a 6-way break-
down into groups having 0-4, 5-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-16, and 17 plus years
of schooling; and for most purposes it can become a 3-way breakdown
into groups having 0-8, 9-12, and 13 plus years of schooling. Finally, the
problem is tremendously reduced because the history of each older person
covers data for all the earlier 5-year age periods and, therefore, supplies
cases for several of the breakdowns. This reduces the total problem to a
small fraction of its theoretic magnitude, and brings it within the range
of possible study,
SIZE OF SAMPLE
The number of factors which actually affect human sexual behavior
must far exceed the twelve listed above. In spite of the degree of homo-
geneity which such a breakdown brings, there is a considerable amount of
variation still to be found in each ultimate group. In order to understand
any group it is necessary, therefore, to secure a sample of such size as will
show the full range of the variation in the group, and show the frequency
with which each type of variant occurs in the group. This is possible only
with samples of some size.
In studies where an over-all picture c^f a total, undivided population is
a chief objective, as in some of the Department of Agriculture surveys, and
in most of the problems with which the Census Bureau has been concerned
(Stephan, Deming, and Hansen 1940), the sampling has been considered
sufficient when a small group of individuals represents each ultimate cell
in the population. The validity of such a procedure may, however, be
debatable even for over-all surveys, and it is certainly inadequate when an
understanding of the variability within any sub-group is the prime concern.
Persons who have recommended that we use pin-point sampling, and those
who have urged that an elaboration of the techniques of factor analysis
could accomplish the ends of this research with a sample of much smaller
size, have failed to comprehend that the chief concern of the present study
is an understanding of the sexual behavior of each segment of the popula-
tion, and that it is only secondarily concerned with generalizations for the
population as a whole. As subsequent chapters will indicate, there are
segments of the population which engage in particular kinds of sexual
activities with frequencies that average 10 or 20 times as high as the fre-
quencies in other segments of the population. Scientifically and socially it
is of the greatest importance to understand why populations differ as much
as that. Pin-point sampling which is designed to secure an over-all picture
of a total population provides no basis for analyzing factors which account
for differences between groups, and it even obscures such differences,
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
83
reducing all measures to the sort of mediocrity which a combination of high
and low scores always gives.
It has, then, been of prime importance in the present study to determine
the size of the sample needed in each ultimate group. Such a determination
has been attempted through the strictly pragmatic procedure of making
calculations on series of samples of different sizes. Means and medians*
for both total and active populations, the incidences of active cases, the
range, the height of the mode, and the locus of the mode have been calcu-
lated for each of the 698 samples which have been used in this study.
Systematic comparisons of the results obtained from the populations of
various sizes have provided information on the size of sample necessary
for securing relatively stable results. The detailed data are shown in Tables
155 to 162, which form an Appendix in the present volume. A summary of
the material shown in those tables is presented here as Table 2.
In every instance, the samples used in the present study have represented
populations that were made homogeneous for sex, race, marital status, age,
educational level, and either the rural-urban background or the religious
background of the individual. The samples of various sizes have all been
selected by a randomization performed on IBM machines. The successive
samples in each problem contained 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and (wherever
the material was available) 600, 1000, and 1500 cases. Where there was still
additional material, calculations were made for the total number of cases.
In some instances more than 2'^0 histories were available for the final
calculations.
The samples of successive size were all selected directly out of the total
population, i.e., the original sample of 50 cases was turned back into the
total population after calculation, and the sample of 100 cases was then
chosen from the total population. This process was repeated for each
sample of subsequent size. In no instance was the larger sample obtained
by adding cases to the smaller sample. If the latter procedure had been used,
the results might have been confused because of variation in the increments
which were added. The present method of selecting each sample has strictly
confined the study to the problem of sample size.
Table 2 shows how many of the samples of various sizes (50, 100, 200,
etc.) gave statistical calculations that were close enough to calculations
derived from the largest samples to have been acceptable without the fur-
ther accumulation of cases. The statistics derived from the largest sample
in each series have been the bases for measuring the adequacy of the results
obtained from the smaller samples. The smaller samples were identified as
adequate whenever the statistics calculated from them came within 5 per
cent, plus or minus (f.e., within a total range of 10 per cent), of the corres-
* For definitions and explanations of the statistical terms used here, see later sections
of the present chapter.
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUIvlAN MALE
84 .
Statistic
Percent of Samples Which Prove Adequate
When Size of Sample is:
50
100
200
1 300
400
i 600
1000
’ 1500
mean FREQ., TOTAL POPULA-
0/
/o
O/
/ o
/o
O "
/o
0 ^
/ 0
0
0
'*()
O
/o
TION
i
All outlets
23
36
54
61
72
67
77
1 67
Masturbation
16
53
58
74
88
67
100
j 100
Nocturnal emissions
41
50
59
77
84
100
100
67
Pre-marital intercourse
16
16
37
21
65
50
50
33
Homosexual
MEAN FREQ., ACTIVE POPU-
5
11
37
32
12
17
33
33
LATION
All outlets
21
31
50
63
69
67
79
73
Masturbation
21
47
58
63
88
50
100
! 100
Nocturnal emissions
23
45
50
68
84
100
100
i 67
Pre-marital intercourse
26
16
26
37
53
50
50
33
Homosexual
MEDIAN FREQ., TOTAL POPU-
0
0
32
47
24
33
67
67
LATION
All outlets
14
34
49
64
67
75
90
50
Masturbation
5
42
47
63
65
67
100
33
Nocturnal emissions
18
22
33
61
63
100
100
67
Pre-marital intercourse
MEDIAN FREQ., ACTIVE POPU-
0
13
25
43
29
0
50
0
LATION
All outlets
21
31
48
52
71
67
73
67
Masturbation
11
32
37
58
71
67
100
67
Nocturnal emissions
32
36
5^
50
89
100
100
100
Pre-marital intercourse
21
16
32
37
53
67
33
67
Homosexual
16
21
32
37
41
17
50
33
INCIDENCE
All outlets
28
39
47
58
67
63
73
67
Masturbation
21
32
47
84
88
83
100
100
Nocturnal emissions
18
36
41
59
68
67
83
100
Pre-marital intercourse
11
11
26
26
41
33
67
Homosexual
RANGE (MINUS 1)
5
11
21
16
29
33
17
*33
AH outlets
0
8
17
37
51
23
67
67
Masturbation
0
11
26
32
47
50
83
67
Nocturnal emissions
0
5
14
45
63
17
50
33
Pre-marital intercourse
0
11
11
26
35
33
67
67
Homosexual
0
11
16
47
41
17
83
100
MODE : HEIGHT
All outlets
35
43
50
73
85
80
93
80
Masturbation
5
37
42
58
82
67
100
67
Nocturnal emissions
36
50
45
91
79
100
83
100
Pre-marital intercourse
42
53
53
74
100
83
100
100
Homosexual
68
58
84
95
100
100
100
100
All statistics
23%
35%
47%
60%
69%
63%
79%
69%
Number of samples studied
769
768
768
769
668
215
214
108
Table 2. Size of sample versus adequacy of sample
For an explanation, see the accompanying text.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
85
ponding statistics derived from the largest samples. All comparisons shown
in the table have been on this 5 per cent basis, except the comparisons of
incidence data, for which a range of error of only 2 per cent was allowed.
These definitions of adequacy have been, of course, quite arbitrary. It is
obviously possible to calculate the adequacy of each sample when a larger
range of error, or when only a smaller range of error, is allowed. A whole
series of such calculations should be made before this sample study is
completed ; but such an extended statistical survey must be pursued else-
where, rather than in the present volume.
An examination of Table 2 warrants a number of conclusions concerning
the size of the sample that is needed for each of the ultimate cells in the
present study. These generalizations will need to be modified before they
are extended to problems in other fields; but they have served as guides in
the set-up of the immediate problem, and should provide some help to
others who are interested in setting up similar surveys.
1. Samples of 50 cases chosen at random after a 6-way breakdown of the total popu-
lation occasionally give results which are within 5 per cent of those obtained from
samples of 1000, 1500, or more cases. This happens in something between 5 and 60 per
cent of all the problems which we have worked; but in most categories hardly 20 per cent
of the samples of 50 prove adequate. If a sample of 50 is all that is used, the calculations
of various statistics for various types of sexual outlet could not be depended upon in
more than 1 in 5 cases.
2. A sample of 1 00 proves adequate, by the above definition, in a much larger number
of cases. 1 in 3 or even 1 in 2 of the samples of 100 give results which are within 5 per
cent, plus or minus, of those obtained from the largest samples.
3. There has been a corresponding increase in the quality of these samples when the
cases were increased to 200.
4. There is a still more marked increase in adequacy when 300 cases are used. On
most of the statistics calculated on populations of 300, two-thirds to three-fourths or
more of all the samples give results which are nearly identical to those obtained from
the largest samples.
5. Samples of 400 show still improved quality in regard to nearly all the calculated
statistics except the frequency data; but the improvement is hardly enough to warrant
the time and effort involved in gathering the last 100 cases — ^unless it is important to
obtain greater precision than 300 cases afford.
6. Samples of various sizes between 400 and 1500, or even 2700 cases, fail to show
any consistent improvement. By standard statistical theory, a steady albeit slow im-
provement in the quality of the calculations might have been expected as the size of the
sample was increased. We fail to find that this is so in the present problem. On the con-
trary, the statistics calculated on the larger samples vary erratically from sample to
sample, almost as much as they do between populations of two, three, and four hundred
cases.
7. The incidence data are the most stable, and samples of 50 or 100 give results
which, in many cases, are comparable to those obtained from the largest samples
(Figures 4, 5). If samples of 200 or 300 are used, in half or more of these small samples
the incidence data fall within 2 per cent of those obtained from the larger samples.
8. The locus of the mode is adequately determined in two-thirds of the samples of
50 cases, and in 80 or 90 per cent of the samples of 100 cases. This statement would be
modified, of course, if the categories used in the frequency distributions were more or
less extended than those which have been used in the present study (Figures 4, 5).
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
o S S S 55
o o o o
S r5 to xj*
S 8 § s 8 Si
K> Tj- Tt
o o o o o
Cn o s o
— «N< rt
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS- SINCLE MALES • EDUC LEVEL 0-8 * PROTESTANT INACTIVE
AGE I6-Z0
o o
o o
K> ^ ^
O O O o O
^ 2 S ^ 5
o o o
o ^
HOMOSEXUAL CONTACTS - SINGLE MALES -AGE 16-ZOEOUC LEVEL 0-8* PROTESTANT INACTIVE
Figure 4, Relation of size of sample to statistical values
Size of each sample is shown in the figures at the base of each bar. Means and medians
in each series are on the same scale, and therefore directly comparable.
495
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
8 :
NECESSARY SAMPLE SIZE
MEAN MEDIAN INCIDENCE RANGE
TOTAL OUTLET- SINOLE MALES • AOE 21-25 EDUC LEVEL 13+ * PROTESTANT INACTIVE
MASTURBATION - SINGLE MALES AGE 21-25 • EDUC LEVEL 13+* PROTESTANT INACTIVE
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS - SINGLE MALES* AGE 21-ZS • EDUC LEVEL 13+ PROTESTANT INACTIVE
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS -SINGLE MALES -AGE 21-25 ■ EDUC LEVEL • PROTEST INACTIVE
Figure 5. Relation of size of sample to statistical values
Size of each sample is shown in the figures at the base of each bar. Means and mediani:
in each series are on the same scale, and therefore directly comparable.
88
SEXUAL BERAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
9. For most of the other statistics, samples of 300 are markedly better than samples
of 200, except for the frequency data where samples of 400 are necessaiy’ to obtain con-
sistent results (Figures 4, 5).
10. The range of variation w'hich actually exists in a population is not adequately
shown by any small sample. There is a steady extension of the range of variation through
samples of 300 or 400, and m some cases the range is materially increased by still larger
samples (Figures 4-7).
11. Frequency curves become increasingly smooth as the samples increase in size, at
least up to 200 or 300 cases (Figures 6, 7). On some problems, they do not reach the
ultimate degree of smoothness until 400 or 500 cases are used; but it is a waste of time
and effort to secure a larger series of cases. Frequency curves never do reach the ideal
in smoothness, at least with any large sample of the size (2700) which we have had for
testing.
12. It is well known statistically that the adequacy of a sample depends upon its range
of variation as well as upon its size. There are, therefore, some phenomena that may be
sufficiently illustrated by samples that are inadequate for measuring other phenomena.
The frequencies of masturbation, for instance, show a wider range of variation than the
frequencies of nocturnal emissions, and the latter are sufficiently explored (Table 2)
with a much smaller sample than would serve for describing masturbation in the same
population. The size of a sample in a case history study, however, must be adequate
for the examination of the most variable phenomenon which is to be studied.
13. Balancing the diverse considerations outlined above, we reach the conclusion
that samples of 300 are desirable in each of the ultimate cells of the present study.
Samples of 400 are enough better to warrant gathering that many histones when they
are available. Samples of still larger size do not add enough information to warrant
their use, and we have avoided going after such samples. The larger samples which are
shown in a few places in the present volume have been obtained for the sake of an ulti-
mate 7-, 8-, or even 12-way breakdown of the data.
14. While samples of 300 are more depend^jble than smaller samples, calculations
based on samples of 100 or 200 have considerable significance, and calculations made
in the present volume on samples of that size need not be dismissed as inadequate
(Table 2, Figures 4, 5).
15. In a few cases, samples of 50 give a good indication of the results that a large
sample would give. However, such small samples have been used in the present volume
only when they belong to series for which most of the points are established 'yv relatively
large samples. Samples of 50 are used, for instance, to place older groups in age series
for which larger samples of younger males have already establishedlhe trends.
16. Samples of less than fifty cases have not been used for any of the calculations in
this volume. On occasion, incidental references have been made to such small groups.
17. All of the above conclusions apply to populations w'hich are homogeneous for
six of the factors which are used in the basic breakdown of the present problem. Pre-
liminary calculations indicate that when seven or more breakdowns are made, the increas-
ing homogeneity of each cell makes it possible to base analyses on something less than
the three hundred cases called for above. Pragmatic tests of the size of sample necessary
for these more complex breakdowns will have to be made as this research progresses.
It is customary in statistics to measure the accuracy of a calculated
mean by computing its “standard deviation” (represented by the symbol
or by some similar measure of significance. This defines the limits on
either side of the calculated mean, within which there is a 2 to 1 chance
that the actual mean, the reality, may fall. Unfortunately, standard devia-
tions of means are sometimes misinterpreted as measures of the adequacy
of the samples on which they are based. In Tables 155-156 in the Appen-
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
89
dix, standard deviations are attached to all of the means calculated for the
samples of various sizes. Some idea of the eifect of adding cases to origi-
nally smaller samples may be obtained from an examination of these
standard deviations. More extensive comparisons of the significance of
these statistical measures, in contrast to the results obtained by the prag-
matic testing of sample size, will need to be made elsewhere at some later
date.
Where the distribution of the variants in a population is fairly homo-
geneous (as in some physical universes), and where the range of variation
is within limits which can be fairly well anticipated (again, as in some
physical universes), a relatively small sample may be representative of the
whole. But in the living world the distribution of the variants in any
population is usually more irregular, and it is less often possible to antici-
pate the full range of variation. The number of factors affecting living
protoplasm, and particularly the number of factors affecting the behavior
of whole organisms, is infinitely greater than the number affecting most
physical phenomena. There is, in consequence, much greater variation
among living structures and biological phenomena. Behavior characters
vary even more than physiologic characters, and these in turn vary more
than morphologic characters (Pearl 1946:43 ff.). Frequency distributions of
physical phenomena often follow standard curves or simple permutations
thereof ; but frequency distributions in the living world are rarely normal,
and usually fall into irregular ci^rves that are sometimes not even smooth
curves, as our own work on insect measurements has shown (preliminarily
reported in Kinsey 1942), and as the frequency curves in the present volume
will also demonstrate.
In such non-homogeneous populations, it is quite possible to collect a
few individuals so nearly alike that the standard deviation of the mean is
small Unfortunately, in too many biologic, psychologic, sociologic, and
anthropologic studies, including some of the published sex studies, such
small standard deviations are taken as indicators of the adequacy of a
sample, even though it may have only a half dozen or a dozen or a score
or two individuals in it. Such a use of standard deviations or probable
errors as measures of validity involves a misunderstanding of their real
nature and function. The student with practical experience in taxonomy
or in human surveying soon learns that the addition of a few more cases
to such small samples may introduce data that are outside of the range of
variation covered by the original specimens, and that such additions may
alter the original calculations to an extent which would never have been
anticipated through an examination of the standard deviations of the
means. Each investigator must know the general order of the variation
that may occur in the material with which he works, see to it that the
sample is well spread through the whole range of variation, and learn
90
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
NECESSARY SAMPLE SIZE
Figure 6. Relation of size of sample to form of frequency curve
Showing frequency distributions for total outlet. Based on single males, belonging to
the age group 16-20^ of grade school level (0-8), and inactive Protestant.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
91
MODe=lO
FREaUENCY PER WEEK
Figure 7. Relation of size of sample to form of frequency curve
Showing frequency distributions for masturbation. Based on single males belonging
to the age group 16-20, of college level (13+), and inactive Protestant.
92
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
through some pragmatic means the general order of the sample size that
will begin to represent the whole of the universe that is being sampled. At
that point, and not before, standard deviations serve to indicate the range
within which the calculated means may match reality. It is for that purpose,
and not as measures of the adequacy of the samples, that standard devia-
tions have been calculated and attached to the means shown in the tables
throughout this volume.
It is important to understand that the sampling techniques used in the
present study call for more or less equal samples from each of the ultimate
groups, irrespective of the relative size of each of those groups in the
population as a whole. This has been called “stratified sampling” (Snede-
cor 1946. See Whelpton and Kiser 1943-1945 for an instance of its use).
On the other hand, many persons think of sampling as a technique that
draws from each group in proportion to the size of that group in the total
population. This is “representative sampling.” Such samples may, in
actuality, serve when the objective is a single set of figures which will
describe the entire population. But whenever one attempts to understand
the particular groups of which a population is composed, such a course
is unacceptable because data so obtained are of variable reliability, due to
the differences in the sizes of the samples which represent the several seg-
ments of the population. For instance, Negroes constitute less than 10
per cent of the total population of the United States (U. S. Census 1940);
but a Negro sample that was only a tSnth as large as the white sample
would be much less adequate than the white sample. If one is to study
Negroes as a group, one should have as many Negro cases as white.
Similarly, the samples for each of the other cells in the present study should
be more or less equal in size. This is a principle on which the public opinion
surveys depend, and the principle about which the present study has been
organized.
DIVERSIFICATION OF SAMPLE
In a physical universe, or even in measuring dead insects, it is possible
to choose the cases which enter into any sample by some carefully planned
system of randomization which avoids bias on the part of the investigator,
and minimizes those fortuitous circumstances which account for the irreg-
ular distribution of particular kinds of individuals within a population.
By the same token, the ideal set-up in a human study would involve a pre-
liminary survey in which every person in the total population, or a random-
ized percentage of all persons, would be required to provide the informa-
tion which would allow him to be classified on the basis of the items in-
volved in the analysis of the problem {e.g., the six-way or twelve-way
breakdown in the present study). From the persons that fall into each
ultimate cell, the necessary number of cases would then be selected by some
thorough scheme of randomization, and persuaded or commanded to con-
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
93
tribute the full and complete data necessary in the survey. A recent survey
of factors affecting fertility, sponsored by the Milbank Foundation Fund,
chose its sample in this way from white couples in the city of Indianapolis
(Whelpton and Kiser 1943-1945).
Unfortunately, human subjects cannot be regimented as easily as cards
in a deck, and the investigator of human behavior faces sampling problems
which are not sufficiently allowed for by pencil and paper statisticians. In
a nation-wide survey, it would be impossible to make the preliminary
investigation necessary for classifying the population on a twelve-way, or
even a six-way breakdown. Neither is it feasible to stand on a street corner,
tap every tenth individual on the shoulder, and command him to contrib-
ute a full and frankly honest sex history. Theoretically less satisfactory
but more practical means of sampling human material must be accepted
as the best that can be done.
The first principle to observe in securing histories is that of diversifying
each collection which enters into the sample. Even after a twelve-way
breakdown, the population in each ultimate cell is still affected by a multi-
plicity of factors which cause variation in the group. Even after a twelve-
way breakdown, a sample from one city cannot be taken as representative
of cities in general. A study based on New York City (as nearly half of the
previous sex studies have been) cannot be taken as representative of all
other cities. The population in one city block differs from the population
in the next block in the same city? A group from one church is not a dupli-
cate of a group from the next church. The factory workers in one plant do
not duplicate the factory workers in the next plant. Skilled carpenters must
not be taken as representative of all skilled craftsmen. The students in
one girls’ college must not be depended upon for the total sample from
exclusively girls’ schools. The cases that are used to represent each ultimate
cell in a human population should be drawn from a number of groups,
widely distributed geographically, and including as great a diversity as is
possible within the limits of the group.
HUNDRED PERCENT SAMPLES
Since it is impossible to secure a strictly randomized sample, the best
substitute is to secure one hundred percent of the persons in each social
unit from which the sample is drawn. One hundred percent of the members
of a family group, all the persons living in a particular apartment house, all
the members of a college sorority or fraternity, all the persons in some
service club, all the members of some Sunday School class or some other
church organization, all the persons in a city block, all the persons in a
rural township, all the inmates of some penal or other institution, all the
persons in some other unit, provided that unit has not been brought to-
gether by a common sexual interest.
94
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Hundred Percent versus Partial Samples
Single White Males of College Level
GROUP
sample
total population
active population
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
age: adol~15
Total Outlet
100%
Partial
2.62 ± 0.11
2.89 0.06
1.96
2.28
95,6
95.8
2.74 ± 0.11
3.02 ± 0.06
2.07
2.40
Masturbation
100%
Partial
2.12 =i= 0.09
2.25 =fc 0.06
1.52
1.64
82.7
82.2
2.56 ± 0.10
2.74 ± 0.06
1.94
2.11
Nocturnal
Emissions
100%
Partial
0.30 0.02
0.35 =1= 0.02
0.08
0.11
67.2
70.7
0.45 ± 0.03
0.49 ± 0.02
0.26
0.28
Pre-marital
Coitus
100%
Partial
0.05 ± 0.02
0.08 i 0.01
0.00
0.00
9.5
9.3
0.56 ± 0.24
0.90 ± 0.11
0.17
0.30
Homosexual
100%
Partial
0.06 =i= 0.01
0.10 0.01
0.00
0.00
17.9
22.6
0.32 ± 0.05
0.43 ± 0.04
0.08
0.09
age: 16-20
Total Outlet
100%
Partial
2.38 =fc 0.08
2.80 0.05
1.85
2.20
99.7
99.8
2.38 ± 0.08
2.81 ± 0.05
1.85
2.21
Masturbation
100%
Partial
1.61 ± 0.07
1.84 0.05
1.03
1.24
88.9
88.5
1.81 ± 0.07
2.08 ± 0.05
1.29
1.56
Nocturnal
Emissions
100%
Partial
0.42 ± 0.02
0.42 0.01
0.24
^0.25
91.3
91.3
0.46 ± 0 03
0.47 ± 0.01
0.28
0.29
Pre-marital
Coitus
100%
Partial
0.18 i 0.02
0.27 =1= 0.02
0.00
0.00
36.1
39.6
0.50 ± 0.05
0.67 ± 0.04
0.23
0.21
Homosexual
100%
Partial
0.03 =fc 0,01
0.08 ± 0 01
0.00
0.00
12.3
17.1
0.25 ± 0.04
0.44 ± 0.05
0.08
0.09
age: 21-25
Total Outlet
100%
Partial
2.14 ± 0.09
2.57 ± 0.06
1.64
1.93
100.0
99.8
2.14 ± 0.09
2.58 ± 0.06
1.64
1.94
Masturbation
100%
Partial
1.15 ± 0.07
1.34 ±0.05
0.66
0.69
88.8
86.5
1.30 ± 0.07
1.55 ± 0.05
0.80
0.88
Nocturnal
Emissions
100%
Partial
0.40 ± 0.03
0.38 ± 0.02
0.23
0.22
86.4
87.2
0.47 ± 0.04
0.43 ± 0.02
0.30
0.28
1
Pre-marital
Coitus
100%
Partial
0,36 ± 0.05
0.47 ± 0.03
0.01
0.03
52.3
55.2
0.68 ± 0.08
0.86 ± 0.05
0.30
0.31
Homosexual
100%
Partial
0.03 ± 0.01
0.10 ± 0.02
0.00
0.00
5.7
10.4
0.57 ± 0.17
1.01 ± 0.12
0.23
0.32
Table 3. Comparisons of hundred percent and partial samples
The “partial samples” include both the hundred percent groups and the volunteers obtained
outside of the hundred percent groups. Comparisons have been made on this basis in order
that these “partial samples” should correspond with the samples on which calculations have
been made throughout the present volume. Populations for the hundred percent samples in
the three age groups are 655, 664, and 367, respectively; and for the partial samples, 2144,
2197, and 1531, respectively.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
95
Securing a hundred percent of any group is, in actuality, more feasible
than securing a good random sample of the same group ; for, as already
noted (Chapter 2), it is possible to develop a community interest in a group
project, and this puts considerable pressure on each individual to contrib-
ute as a matter of loyalty or obligation to the group of which he is a part.
It is, of course, easier to secure a hundred percent of a smaller group, unless
it be a group of inmates in an institution, and it is ordinarily impossible to
secure a hundred percent of any group unless the investigators can work
with it for a period of weeks or months. Ordinarily it is not profitable to try
to secure a complete sample until an appreciable portion (perhaps a half
or more) of a group has contributed. Then the first persons who have given
histories can help develop a group project by enlisting whatever organiza-
tion there is to make it an official project. The time required to secure such
a sample is costly, as calculated per history, and that is one reason why
a larger number of hundred percent groups has not yet been secured for
the present study. In some cases it has been necessary to work with the last
few individuals in a group for as long as a year or two before they agree to
contribute.
Of the 12,000 histories now at hand in the present study, 3104 (=26%)
have come from hundred percent groups. These groups have come from
the following sources:
Hundred Percent Groups
% . — . —
Type of Group
Number of Groups
College sororities
2
College fraternities
9
College student groups
6
College classes
7
CoUege rooming houses, for unorganized
5
Professional groups
13
Conscientious objectors
2
NYA project
1
Junior high school classes
3
Speech clinic groups
3
Rooming houses, in town
3
Hitch-hikers (over a 3-year period)
1
Delinquent institutional groups
4
Penal institutional groups
2
Mental institutional group
1
Total
62
These hundred percent groups have come from some variety of sources,
but only the college groups are well enough represented (by series of at
least 300 cases) to allow their use in testing the validity of the partial sample
in this study. The accumulation of many more histories in these complete
96
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Hundred Percent versus Partial Samples: Accumulative Incidence
Data
Educational Level 13-|-
AGE
masturbation
nocturnal emissions
1
Partial Sample
100% Sample
i
Partial Sample
100% Sample
Cases
1
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases i
.
% with
Exper.
8
2815
0.0
656
0.0
2811
0.0
656
0.0
9
2815
0.3
656
0.3
2811
0.0
656
0.0
10
2815
2.3
656
2.1
2811
0.5
656
0.6
11
2815
8.9
656
8.2
2811
3.2
656
3.2
12
2815
27.9
656
26.2
2811
11.6
656
10.4
13
2815
52.9
656
52.3
2811
29.1
656
25.3 =■
14
2815
72.2
656
72.0
2811
52.2
656
47.1
15
2815
80.2
656
81.3
2811
68.9
656
67.2
16
2814
84.3
655
85.2
2810
80.7
655
79.8
17
2812
87.0
655
88.2
2808
87.0
655 1
86.9
18
2736
88.9
611
90.2
2732
91.0
611
92.0
19
2572
90.0
539
91.8
f 2568
92.6
539
93.9
20
2337
91.1
457
92.3
2333
93.6
457
95.4
21
2031
92.0
383
92.4
2027
94.5
383
95.0
22
1670
92.8
312
93.3
1668 !
94.7
312 !
95.2
23
1396
93.3
269
93.3
1395
94.8
269 I
95.2
24
1151
93.1
242
93.8
1150
95.7
242 i
95.9
25
1002
93.9
203
94.6
1001 '
96.2
203
97.0
26
884
94.9
163
95.7
883
96.5
163
97.5
27
774
95.3
124
96.0
773
96.2
124
97.6
28
699 j
95.3
no
95.5 i
698
96.6
no
97.3
29
634
95.0
94
94.7 !
633
96.8
94
97.9
30
573
95.6
79
96.2
572
97.2
79
97.5
31
529
95.3
73
95.9
528 I
97.3
73
97.3
32
492
95.5
67
98.5
491
97.6
67
98.5
33
448
95.3
58
98.3
447
97.5
58
98.3
34
412
95.9
51
98.0
411
98.1
51
98.0
35
382
95.8
381
98.4
36
356
95.8
355
98.6
j
37
323
95.7
322
98.4
38
307
95.8
306
98.7
39
280
95.4
279
98.6
40
257
96.1
!
256
99.2
Table 4. Comparisons of data obtained from partial and hundred percent samples
Based on males of the college level.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
97
HUNDRED PERCENT VERSUS PARTIAL SAMPLES
AGE
)00 I 1 1 ]
AGE
Figures 8-10. Comparisons of accumulative incidence curves based on hundred
percent and partial samples
For males of college level (13+).
98
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Hundred Percent versus Partial Samples: Accumulative Incidence
Data
Educational Level 134-
AGE
petting to climax
TOTAL intercourse
Partial Sample
100% Sample
Partial Sample
100% Sample
Cases
%with
Cases
% with
Cases
% with
Cases
% with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
8
1596
0.0
276
0.0
2817
0.0
656
0.0
9
1596
0.0
276
0.0 1
2817
0.0
656
0.0
10
1596
0.0
276
0.0
2817
0.0
656
0.0
11
1596
0.0
276
0.0
2817
0.2
656
0.2
12
1596
0.3
276
0.4
2817
1.0
656
1.1
13
1596
1.6
276
1.8
2817
3.1
656
3.0
14
1596
4.1
276
3.6
2817
6.0
656
5.2
15
1596
7.6
276
8.0
2817
9.5
656
9.5
16
1596
15.5
276
16.3
2816
15.5
655
15.3
17
1593
23.0
275
26.2
2814
23.1
655
24.4
18
1534
31.2
245
30.6
c2738
30.9
611
31.6
19
1474
38.4
232
40.1
2574
38.3
539
37.5
20
1389
46.0
227
47.6
2339
45.7
457
44.0
21
1240
50.1
214
50.9
2033
50.9
383
47.0
22
1047
52.8
193
54.4
1672
58.3
312
56.1
23
872
54.6
181
58.0
1397
63.0
269
61.0
24
688
56.3
164
61.6
1152
68.8
242
68.6
25
543
58.2
123
64.2
1002
75.0
203
72.9
26
437
60.6
97
68.0
884
80.1
163
77.3
27
321
56.7 i
60
65.0
774
82.6
124
79.8
28
255
56.5 j
699
85.1
110
81.8
29
204
59,3 1
634
87.1 '
94
85.1
30 1
161
61.5
573
89.5
79
87.3
31
122
60.7
529
90.9
73
89.0
32
100
57.0
492
91.3
67
89.6
33
89
56.2
448
91.1
58
89.7
34
72
55.6
412
92.5
51
94.1
35
61
55.7
382
93.2
Table 5. Comparisons of data obtained from partial and hundred percent samples
Based on males of the college level. Petting is pre-marital. Total intercourse includes
pre-marital, marital, extra-marital, and post-marital relations with both companions
and prostitutes.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
99
samples is one of the important things to be followed through in the future
development of this project.
By means of Table 3 it is possible to compare the frequency and inci-
dence figures for the 15 groups on which there are sufficient cases in the
hundred percent sample. It will be seen that the active incidence figures
(recording the number of persons who are involved in any particular period
of time) show a remarkable conformance between the partial sample and
the hundred percent portion of that sample. The same is true of the accu-
mulative incidence figures (recording the number of persons who have ever
been involved) (Tables 4-6, Figures 8-13). The differences usually involve
1 per cent to 5 per cent of the population. Throughout this study it may,
therefore, be accepted that both the active and accumulative incidence
data and curves show the general locus of the reality, though the curves
may need correction of a few percent one way or the other. For instance,
the actual, accumulative incidence figure for masturbation in the college
segment of the population must lie within a few degrees of the 96 per cent
figure given by the data; and whether it is in actuality 94 per cent or 98
per cent is not of much moment ; but it is certain that it is not the 85 per cent
nor 90 per cent figure given by some studies, nor the 100 per cent figure often
guessed at, nor the 7 per cent figure found in one study (Bromley and
Britten 1938). Similarly, there can be no question that the actual accumu-
lative incidence figure for the homosexual in the college-bred group lies
somewhere between the 28 per ^ent figure derived from the hundred per-
cent sample and the 34 per cent figure derived from the partial sample of
college histories, and that it is nowhere near the 1 per cent to 2 per cent
figure which has been commonly published, nor even the 10 per cent figure
which has been the maximum previously suggested.
There are greater discrepancies between the frequency figures (the
number of times per week each type of activity is engaged in), as calculated
from the hundred percent samples and from the partial samples. The
figures derived from the partial samples are consistently higher for the
total sexual outlet and for all the individual outlets except nocturnal
emissions. For this, there are a number of possible explanations, and it
seems impossible to identify the primary factors until we can secure more
material for analysis. It is quite probable that a number of factors are
really involved. The following considerations should be kept in mind :
1. The volunteers who make up the partial sample may represent a
more active group of individuals, of the type which is aggressive, responds
to a call for cooperation in a survey, and is more responsive and less
inhibited sexually. It is true that the last persons to contribute in a hundred
percent sample are sometimes the more prudish, restrained, apathetic, and
sexually less active individuals. If this is often true, then the frequency
figures throughout this volume should be reduced by some percentage, and
100
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Hundred Percent versus Partial Samples: Accumulative Incidence
Data
Educational Level 13+
intercourse with prostitutes homosexual outlets
age
Partial Sample
100% Sample
Partial Sample
100% Sample
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
! Cases
!
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
2816
0.0
656
0.0
2817
0,
.0
656
0.0
9
2816
0.0
656
0.0
2817
0,
.1
656
0.0
10
2816
0.0
656
0.0
2817
0,
.5
656
0.2
11
2816
0.0
656
0.0
2817
1,
.8
656
1.4
12
2816
0.0
656
0.0
2817
6,
.2
656
5.0
13
2816
0.1
656
0.0
2817
11,
.6
656
8.4
14
2816
0.8
656
0.2
2817
18,
.0
656
14.5
15
2816
2.3
656
1.8
2817 !
21.
.1
656
16.9
16
2815
4.8
655
4.4
2816
23,
.0
655
19.4
17
2813
9.1
655
9.8
2814
24,
.1
655
20.0
18
2737
13.6
611
13.1
2738
25,
.6
611
20.8
19
2573
17.4
539
15.4
2574
26,
,7
539
21.3
20 1
2338
20.6
457
19.7
*2339
27.
,6
457
23.2
21
2032
22.2
383
24.8
2033
28.
,6
383
23.5
22
1672
24.9
312
26.3
1672
29.
,8
312
24.4
23 1
1397
25.7
269
21.9
1397
31.
,5
269
23.4
24 !
1152
26.6
242
23.6
1152
32.
,1
242
25.6
25
1002
28.6
203
25.1
1002
33.
.0
203
24.1
26
884
29.4
163
28.8
884
32.
.9
163
23.9
27
774
30.5
124
21.8
774
33.
,7
124
23.4
28
699
32.0
110
23.6
699
33,
.9
110
22.7
29
634
32.0
94
24.5
634 1
33.
.6
1 94
21.3
30
573
33.2
79
24.1
573
33.
.7
79
22.8
31
529
34.0
73
26.0
529
34.
.2
73
24.7
32
492
33.7
67
23.9
492
32.
.9
1 67
23.9
33
448
33.3
58
22.4
448
33,
.9
58
22.4
34
412
33.7
51
21.6
412
34.
.7
51
23.5
35
382
34.6
382
34.
.0
36
356
35.7
356
33.
.7
37
323
35.6
323
33.
.4
38
307
36.2
307
33.
.2
39
280
36.4
280
33,
.6
40
257
36.6
257
32.
.7
Table 6. Comparisons of data obtained from partial and hundred percent samples
Based on males of the college level.
PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
101
Figures 1 1-13. Comparisons of accumulative incidence curves based on hundred
percent and partial samples
For males of college level (134-).
102
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
an increasing proportion of the future intake should be secured from hun-
dred percent groups. However, there are other factors (given below) which
are undoubtedly involved, and the discount made on the frequency data
for the partial sample should not be more than some undetermined fraction
of the difference between the figures for the partial sample and the figures
for the hundred percent groups.
2. The hundred percent samples are not entirely representative, for they
are not as well distributed as the partial sample is through the whole of the
population, even in the college group from which the largest hundred per-
cent samples have come.
3. The hundred percent samples from college groups include an undue
number of sexually less experienced freshmen, because the freshmen
groups were large in the particular fraternities which contributed most
heavily to these samples. Moreover, 28 per cent of the hundred percent
sample is Jewish, while only 10 per cent of the partial sample is Jewish.
The Jewish histories (Chapter 13) are less active than the histories of some
other groups, and this will to some extent account for the lower figures in
the present hundred percent sample.
4. The persons contributing to the hundred percent samples may have
covered up more of the fact, because they did not contribute as willingly
as the volunteers who made up the partial sample.
5. Persons with socially taboo items (e.^., pre-marital intercourse, extra-
marital intercourse, homosexual activity, animal contacts) in their histories
are often among the last to contribute to a hundred percent sample, and
in a number of instances complete collections may have been forestalled
by such persons. On the other hand, these special histories can be secured
in a partial sample by making contacts through the friends of these persons.
There is no doubt that the more extreme histories will always have to be
obtained in some way other than through hundred percent samples.
6. The hundred percent samples are of smaller size than the partial
samples, and therefore less reliable. The partial samples show wider ranges
of variation, and this raises the values of the means. With larger series, the
means in the hundred percent samples might be raised.
CONTROLLING PARTIAL SAMPLES
The above comparisons indicate that there is considerable merit to
samples obtained from volunteers who respond to a general appeal for
histories at a lecture, or through some organizational agency, or who
respond to a more individual appeal. But such volunteer samples can be
quite inadequate, if they are not safeguarded at every step in a study.
1. All general appeals for histories have emphasized the importance of
securing every kind of history — “histories that have everything in them
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
103
and histories that are complete blanks” — “big histories and little histories
and every other kind of history” — “histories that are quite usual and his-
tories that have things in them that some people consider wrong or abnor-
mal, but which we accept as objectively as any other kind of history.”
The restrained histories have, on the whole, been the more difficult to get,
and it has been constantly necessary to reassure individuals with relatively
inactive histories that they were contributing to the study in as important a
way as the persons with more active histories.
2. Contact persons have had to be educated to understand that “a good
history” is a history that accurately reports everything, rather than a his-
tory that has some special element in it. Especially at lower levels, where
the contact men have been paid, it was difficult at first for them to under-
stand that the forty-minute history of an inexperienced teen-ager is as
important as the two- or three-hour history of an older person who has
been involved in every conceivable sort of sexual activity.
3. Experience indicates that the first volunteers from any group are
likely to be the extrovert, aggressive, sexually less inhibited, and often
more active individuals ; but if a group is worked with over a longer period
of time the sample becomes more diversified. For that reason, we have, in
general, avoided working with groups where only a single appeal could be
made, or where the time for taking histories was limited to a few days or
even a week or two. Also for that reason, we have concentrated on securing
samples from a more limited number of cities and towns, and from partic-
ular groups to whom we might return over periods of months and even
years. Some of these groups have been contributing throughout the eight
or nine years of the research. In such places, some persons contribute even
after two or three years of refusing — ^finally convinced by the reaction of
the community that their socially irregular or utterly blank histories can
be reported without embarrassment, and that the project is, after all,
worth while. The partial sample employed in this study would never have
been as representative as it is if we had not had such long-time contacts
with most of the groups.
It is unfortunate that we do not yet have large enough populations to
measure the differences between first samples and subsequent samples
from the same community. It is possible, however, to report measurements
on one college group where Maslow’s dominance and security ratings were
available on some of the females who contributed histories to the present
study of sex behavior (see Maslow 1940, 1942a, 1942b; Maslow,
Hirsh, Stein, and Honigmann 1945, for a detailed description of the tests).
The first volunteers seemed to be more extrovert and assured individuals
(though how that affects a sexual history is not yet clear). By staying nearly
a month in the community, a sample was obtained from about 400 students,
on 92 of whom dominance and/or security scores were available for com-
104
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
parison with about 80 students who were in the same psychology classes
but who failed to volunteer for histories. The volunteer group showed the
full range of variation in dominance and security ratings, from the most
aggressive to the most timid levels. The mean dominance rating for the
group that had volunteered for histories was about 10 per cent higher than
for those who had not volunteered; the mean security score was about 3
per cent lower. We are indebted to Dr. A. H. Maslow for the data which
allow this analysis.
4. Considerable attention must be given to securing an appreciable
portion of each group from which histories are taken, even when it is not
possible to secure a hundred percent sample. In many instances half to
three-quarters or more of each group has been secured. We have an impres-
sion (but as yet insufficient data to test it) that such a sample is not so
different from a complete sample. There is one statistical study (Shuttle-
worth 1941) that suggests that a sixty per cent sample is still insufficient to
represent the whole.
Whenever, as in the present survey, it is not feasible to secure a strictly
randomized sample, a combination of hundred percent sampling and con-
trolled partial sampling seems the best that can be done. To attempt to
base the entire study on hundred percent sampling would not be satis-
factory, for it would be impossible to secure such complete samples in
sufficient number from all of the diverse groups in a population. Suffi-
ciently controlled partial samples seem •to have considerable value, espe-
cially when they are offset by an even greater proportion of hundred
percent samples than we have, as yet, utilized.
ORDER OF SAMPLING
The present study has been very much speeded up while the cost has been
kept at a phenomenally low minimum — actually between 2 per cent and
4 per cent of the cost per history of the previous personal interview studies
in this field. This has been primarily because of a policy of accepting what-
ever histories were immediately available, rather than going after particu-
lar sorts of histories in particular sequence. After securing the histories,
they have been placed in the classificatory cells to which they belong. The
value of such a policy was learned through our experience with insect
sampling. The customary procedure of searching for particular persons to
represent particular segments of the population is expensive because of
the work involved in locating those particular cases. If one is satisfied to
accept material in the order in which it appears, one sooner or later finds
the particular cases which are necessary for the completion of a study.
While we have always endeavored to secure some degree of diversity in our
sample, we have not failed to seize the opportunity to take histories from
the immediately available groups, until enough histories had been secured
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
105
to satisfy the demands in those groups. At the present writing there are
only two cells from which we have enough histories, and it is now a matter
of avoiding cases that belong to those particular groups. In the course of
time one has to go further out of his way to secure histories from certain
other groups, and that will increase the cost; but the cost can always be
kept relatively low if one bides his time and takes the material that is most
available.
SYNTHESIZING A U. S. SAMPLE
While, as just indicated, data on each of the ultimate groups in the popu-
lation are the first objectives of the present study, it has been desirable at
certain points to calculate statistics which would be applicable to some
larger group, as, for instance, all single white males in the U. S. population,
or all married white males, or all white males of all sorts in the total
American population. This has been accomplished by weighting the raw
data from each of the ultimate groups in the study, in proportion to the
size of that group in the U. S. Census, and totalling the weighted results for
all the groups. The Census of 1940 shows the distribution of the total
population by all the items which are involved in the six-way breakdown
employed in the present volume: sex, race, marital status, age, number of
years of schooling (without a clear distinction between current and com-
pleted educational histories), and the rural-urban background (on a slightly
different basis than the one employed in the present study). At a few points
where the Census breakdowns do not exactly match our own (e.g., in their
failure to indicate what proportion of the population is pre-adolescent, and
in regard to the educational record as noted above), it has been possible
to make estimates which cannot have introduced an error of more than a
fraction of one per cent into the calculations. Tables 7 to 1 1 show the con-
stants thus derived from the 1940 Census figures. They are the bases of the
calculations which appear throughout the present volume as “U. S. Cor-
rections” of the raw data. To make any correction from these tables, each
item in the raw data should be multiplied by the figure shown at the appro-
priate point in the table. The products of all the items in any particular age
group are then totalled and divided by the “age weight” figure (the second
column in each table).
An examination of the tables and charts throughout this volume will
show how far apart raw data and “U. S. Corrections” may be. Since the
smaller groups in stratified sampling should be represented by samples of
the same size as those used for the larger groups, they unduly affect the
calculations made for a total population. Therefore, in the case of phenom-
ena which occur most frequently in groups which constitute only a small
proportion of the population (e.g., masturbation, nocturnal dreams, and
petting in the college population), the raw data for the total population
give higher averages than the U. S. corrected data (e.g., Figures 38-42,
53-57, 59-63). Conversely, in the case of phenomena which are more
106
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Table for U. S. Correction: Males, White
AGE
GROUP
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
0-8
9-12
13 +
No
Educ
Rpt.
MARITAL
STATUS
S
M
W&D
S
M
W&D
S
M
W&D
URBAN AND RURAL NON-FARM
Age Weight
Adol.-14
(4.59)
(1.03)
(1.83)
(0.48)
15-19
12.33
2.46
0.03
0.00
6.01
0.08
0.00
0.35
0.00
0.00
0.06
20-24
11.43
1.58
0.56
0.01
3.79
1.36
0.02
1.07
0.38
0.01
0.07
25-29
10.93
1.05
1.82
0.03
1.58
2.74
0.05
0.54
0.95
0,02
0.08
30-34
10.24
0.69
2.64
0.06
0.70
2.74
0.07
0.28
1.10
0.04
0.09
35-39
09.51
0.57
3.21
0.12
0.39
2.18
0.08
0.17
0.95
0.03
0.10
40-44
08.92
0.50
3.39
0.17
0.27
1.81
0.08
0.12
0.79
0.03
0.11
45-49
08.57
0.48
3.58
0.21
0.19
1.45
0.08
0.09
0.66
0.03
0.12
50-54
07.72
0.46
3.32
0.28
0.14
1.07
0.10
0.07
0.51
0.04
0.11
55-59
06.23
0.36
2.65
0.31
0.10
0.76
0.09
0.05
0.36
0.04
0.09
60 +
14.12
0.82
5.40
1.74
0.16
1.08
0.35
0.09
0.58
0.19
0.26
Total
100.00
j 8.97
j26.60
2.93
13.33
o
15.27
0.92
2.83
6.28
0.43
1.09
FARM
Adol.-14
15-19
(4.59)
12.33
(0.38)
1.68
0.03
0.00
(0.69),
1.53
0.03
0.00
(0.18)
0.05
0.00
0.00
0.02
20-24
11.43
0.98
0.34'
0.01
0.79 1
0.27
0.01
0.12
0.04
0.00
0.02
25-29
10.93
0.48
0.73
0.02
0.29
0.43
0.01
0.04
0.06
0.00
0 01
30-34
10.24
0.28
0.89
0.02
0.13
0.39
0 01
0.02
0.07
0.00
0.02
35-39
' 09.51
0.21
1.01
0.03
0.06
0.30
0.01
0.01
0.06
0.00
0.02
40-44
08.92
0.17
1.04
0.03
0.04
0.27
0.01
0.01
0.06
0.00
0.02
45-49
08.57
0.15
1.12
0.05
0.03
0.23
0.01
0.01
0.06
0.00
0.02
50-54
07.72
0.15
1.09
0.07
0.02
0.19
0.01 1
0.01
0.06
0.00
0.02
55-59
06.23
0.13
0.96
0.09
0.02
0.14,
0.01
0.01
0.04
0.00
0.02
60+
14.12
0.30
2.07
0.58
0.03
0.22!
0.06
0.01
0.09
0.02
0.07
Total
100.00
4.53
9.28
0,90
2.94
2.47
0.14
0.29
0.54
0.02
0.24
Table 7. Six-way breakdown, U. S. Census, 1940
Weights to be used for correcting raw data on populations resulting from a 6-way successive
breakdown on males where race, rural-urban background, educational level, marital
STATUS, and age are known. Classification based on 44,743,534 white males aged 15 and over.
Estimated number of single white adolescent males through 14 years of age == 2,052,793.
These are not included in totals because the data are not segregated in the U. S. Census ; but
estimates are shown in parentheses on the first line of figures in the table.
Tables for U. S. Correction: Males, White
age
GROUP
educa-
tional
LEVEL
0—8
9-12
j
13 +
MARITAL
STATUS !
!
M
W&D
S
M
1
W&D
S
M
W&D
Adol.-14
Age
Weight
(4.59)
!
(1.41)
0,00
0.00
(2.52)
0.00
0.00
(0.66)
0.00
0.00
15-19
12.25
3.70
0.06
0.00
6.64
0.10
0.00
i 1.75
0.00
0.00
20-24
11.34
2.56
0.90
0.02
4.58
1.63
0.03
1.19
0.42
0.01
25-29
10.84
1.53
2.55
1 0.05
1.87
3.17
0.06
0.58
1.01
0.02
30-34
10.13
0.97
3.53
0.08
0.83
3.13
0.08
0.30
1.17
0.04
35-39
9.39
0.78
4.22
0.15
0.45
2.48
0.09
0.18
1.01
0.03
40-44
8.79
0.67
4.43
0.20
0.31
2.08
0.09
0.13
0.85
0.03
45-49
8.43
0.63
4.70
0,26
0.22
1.68
0.09
0.10
0.72
0.03
50-54
7.59
0.61
4.41
0.35
0.16
1.26
0.11
0.08
0.57
0.04
55-59
6.13
0.49
3,61
0.40
0.12
0.91
0.10
0.06
0.40
0.04
60-1-
13.79
1.12
7 47
1 2.32
0.19
1.30
0.41
0.10
0.67
0.21
Total
98,68
13.06
35.88
3.83
15.37
17.74
1.06
4.47
6.82
0.45
Table 8. Five-way breakdown, U. S. Census, 1940
Weights to be used for correcting raw data on populations resulting from a 5-way successive
breakdown on males where race, educational level, marital status, and age are the items
involved in the analyses. For males who are under 19 years of age and still in grade or high
school, estimates have been made of the educational levels which they will ultimately attain.
Persons who did not report their education in the Census are eliminated from this calculation.
C/. legend on Table 7.
RURAL-URBAN
•
Urban and Rural Non-Farm
Farm
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
0-8
9-12
13+
No
Educ.
Rpt.
0-8
9-12
13+
I
No
Educ.
Rpt.
15-19
Age Weight
12.33
2.49
6.09
0,35
0.06
...
1.56
0.05
0.02
20-24
11.43
2.15
5.17
1.46
0.07
1.33
1.07
0.16
0.02
25-29
10.93
2.90
4.37
1.51
0.08
1.23
0.73
0.10
0.01
30-34
10.22
3.39
3.51
1.42
0.09
1.19
0.53
0.09
0.02
35-39
9.51
3.90
2.65
1.15
0.10
1.25
0.37
0.07
0.02
40-44
8.93
4.06
2.16
0.94
0.11
1.24
0.32
0.07
0.02
45-49
8.59
4.27
1.72
0.78
0.12
1.32
0.27
0.07
0.02
50-54
7.71
4.06
1.31
0.62
0.11
1.31
0.22 i
0.07
0.02
55-59
6.24
3.32
0.95
0.45
0.09
1.18
0.17
0.05
0.02
60+
14.11
7.96
1.59
0.86
0.26
2.95
0.31
0.12
0.07
Total
100.00
38.50
29.52
9.54
1.09
14.71
5.55
0.85
0.24
Table 9. Five-way breakdown, U. S. Census, 1940
Weights to be used for correcting raw data on populations resulting from a 5-way
successive breakdown on males where race, rural-urban background, educational
LEVEL, and AGE are the items involved in the analyses.
107
108
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Tables for U. S. Correction: Males, White
rural-urban
!
Urban and Rural Non-Farm
Farm
age
group
marital
status
S
M
WAD
S
M
W&D
15-19
Age Weight
12.32
8.86
0.13
0.00
3.27
0.06
0.00
20-24
11.44
6.49
2.32
0.04
1,92
0.66
0.01
25-29
10.93
3.19
5.55
0.11
0.82
1.24
0.02
30-34
10.22
1.68
6.55
0.17
0.43
1.36
0.03
35-39
9.52
1.15
6.42
0.24
0.29
1,38
0.04
40-44
8.94
0.90
6.09
0.30
0.22
1.38
0.05
45-49
8.58
0.77
5.77
0.35
0.19
1.43
0.07
50-54
7.73
0.69
4.99
0.43
0.18
1.35
0.09
55-59
6.23
0.52
3.84
0.44
0.16
1.16
0.11
60H-
14.11
1.10
7.24
2,33
i 0.35
2.41
0.68
Total
100.02
25,35
48.90
4.41
7.83
12.43
1.10
Table 10. Five-way breakdown, U. S. Census, 1940
Weights to be used for correcting raw data on populations resulting from a 5-vvay
successive breakdown on males where race, age, the rural-urban background, and
MARITAL status are the items involved in the analyses. Cf. legend on Table 7.
AGE
group
AGE
WEIGHT
rural-urban
educational level
marital status
Non-
farm
Farm
0-8
9-12
13+
No
Rpt.
s
M
W&D
15-19
12.33
8.99
3.33
4.20
7.70
0.40
0.1
12.09
0.16
0.00
20-24
11.43
8.85
2.59
3.48
6.24
1.62
0.1
8.33
2.95
0.06
25-29
10.93
8.85
2.08
4.13
5.10
1.61
0.1
3.98
6.73
0.13
30-34
10.22
8.38
1.81
4.58
4.04
1.51
0.1
2.10
7.83
0.20
35-39
9.51
7.81
1.71
5.15
3.02
1.22
0.1
1.41
7.71
0.27
40-44
8.93
7.29
1.65
5.30
2.48
1.01
0.1
1.11
7.36
0.32
45-49
8.59
6.89
1.69
5.59
1.99
0.85
0.1
0.95
7.10
0.38
50-54
7.71
6.11
1.62
5,37
1.53
0.69
0.1
0.85
6.24
0.50
55-59
6.24
4.80
1.43
4.50
1.13
0.50
0.1
0.67
4.12
0.54
60-1-
14.11
10.67
3.44
10.91
1.90
0.98
0.3
1.41
9.44
2.94
Total
100.00
78.65
22.35
53.21
35.13
10.39
1.2
32.90
60.44
5.34
Table 11. Four-way breakdown, U. S. Census, 1940
Weights to be used for correcting data on populations resulting from a 4-way suc-
cessive breakdown on males where race, age, and either the rural-urban background,
or the educational level, or the marital status are the only items involved in the
analyses.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
109
common in groups that constitute a larger segment of the population
(e.g., pre-marital intercourse and the homosexual in a population that
has gone into high school but not beyond) the raw data are distinctly lower
than the U S. Corrections (e.g.. Figures 71-75, 77-81, 83-87). I he public
opinion polls and most of the government surveys are aware of this prob-
lem, but it is most unfortunate that students in psychology and the social
sciences regularly publish raw data without corrections for the Census
distributions of their populations. As these figures and many others will
show, the raw data are sometimes as much as 34 per cent removed from the
corrected data, and the general shape of the curve may be considerably
changed by the corrections. Throughout the present volume, the figures
given in the body of the text and the heavier lines shown in all the charts
represent U. S. Corrections of the raw data, except in those relatively few
instances where corrections have been impossible because of insufficient
information in the Census.
STATISTICAL ANALYSES
All mathematical calculations on this project have been performed
twice, independently by each of two persons. Computations have been set
up on standard ruled forms, and these are all filed for consultation by any
qualified student who needs to check the method or accuracy of the calcu-
lations.
The statistical manipulation the data in this study has been kept at
an absolute minimum. The incidence data (the record of the number of
persons involved in the various sexual activities) are subject to error be-
cause of deliberate or unconscious cover-up, especially in regard to socially
taboo items. The frequency data (the number of times the activities are
engaged in) cannot be more than approximations to the actual fact,
because sexual activities are more often irregular in their distribution, with
days or weeks of high frequency alternating with days and weeks of low
frequency, and only the persons accustomed to the handling of averages
(as few people are) can estimate their mean frequencies in more than very
approximate terms. Individuals who have kept diaries or calendars may
have more accurate bases for their estimates; but few people have as yet
turned in such records (see p. 74). For these reasons, the calculations in
the present study are likely to involve greater errors than if it were a
study of some other kind of phenomenon. In large series of cases, errors
which are overestimates are sometimes compensated for by errors which
are understatements, provided there is no bias which accumulates the
errors primarily in one direction; but even then there can be no great
precision to the calculations.
In consideration of the approximate nature of the original data, it
would then be misleading to subject them to more than relatively simple
110
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
mathematical treatment. For that reason, only the following statistical
operations have been performed on each history and on each series of
histories.
Individual Frequencies. Average frequencies of orgasm have been calcu-
lated on each history for each type of sexual activity, namely, masturbation,
nocturnal dreams, heterosexual petting, heterosexual coitus, homosexual
contacts, and contacts with animals of other species. Heterosexual rela-
tions have been calculated as pre-marital coitus with prostitutes, pre-mari-
tal coitus with females who are not prostitutes, marital coitus, extra-marital
coitus with prostitutes, extra-marital coitus with other females, post-marital
coitus with prostitutes, or post-marital coitus with other females. For the
purposes of the present volume, only sexual activities which have led to
orgasm have been included in these frequency calculations, although there
are many other aspects of human sexual behavior which will also be con-
sidered in this and in later volumes. Throughout this volume all frequency
figures have been calculated for each individual as average frequencies per
week. In some of the previously published studies, such activities have been
recorded as rates per month; but except for low frequencies, few persons
are capable of estimating average rates for such a period of time. The
social organization imposes a weekly periodicity on various human activi-
ties, including the sexual (Ellis 1901 (1936): 85 ff.), and weekly rates are
consequently better known to most persons.
In summarizing the record on individuals and on groups, frequencies
have been standardized as average frequencies per week extending over
five-year periods involving ages 11-15 (inclusive), 16-20, 21-25, 26-30,
etc. In these periods, weeks or years which were without sexual outlet have
been averaged with the active periods, and in that way seasons of inactivity
have lowered the weekly rates for the whole of a particular five-year
period. Since the calculations apply only to the activities which occur after
the onset of adolescence, the first age period really extends from adoles-
cence to 15, and is usually something less than a five-year period. In the
latter case, the averages shown are based on the active years, and are not
reduced by being averaged with the pre-adolescent years. The last age
period — the period in which the subject contributes his history — is treated
in the same fashion, if it is less than a full five-year period.
For each outlet, average frequencies per week, per five-year period, have
been calculated precisely to the first decimal place. Group averages have
consequently been calculated to the second decimal place. Because of the
approximate nature of the raw data, finer calculations have not seemed
warranted.
Group Frequencies. The nature of any population has been found by
classifying all of the individuals in it into frequency classes which have
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS 1 1 1
been named for their upper limits. The ranges of each class and the class
means used for calculations have been as follows :
1
Class
Range
Mean Value
0
0
0
—
0.01- 0.09
0.05
0.5
0.1 - 0.5
0.3
1.0
0.6 - 1.0
0.8
1.5
1.1 - 1.5
1.3
2.0
1.6 - 2.0
1.8
2.5
2.1 - 2.5
2.3
etc.
10.0
9.6 -10.0
9.8
11.0
10.1 -11.0
10.5
12.0
11.1 -12.0
11.5
etc.
28.0
27.1 -28.0
27.5
29.0+
28 . 1 and higher
28.5
Frequency Curves. The number of individuals which fall into each of
these frequency classes has been translated into percents of the whole
population involved. Frequency curves throughout this volume have been
based on such percents, rather than on the absolute number of cases in
each frequency class. Many of the curves shown in psychologic and socio-
logic literature are uninterpretable because they are based on the absolute
number, instead of upon the percentages of cases involved. All of the
frequency curves in this volume are based on the actual calculations, and in
no instance have they been smoothed by any process or approximated by
interpolations or other sorts of estimates or predictions.
Group Averages. These have been calculated for each type of sexual
outlet for the 5-year periods described above, for each population which
has had 50 or more cases in it after 4-, 5-, or 6-way breakdowns of the
total sample. All tabulations of data by groups, and all correlations, have
been made by putting the data onto standard punch cards (Hollerith, IBM
system), and all manipulations of cards have been performed on IBM
machines. Both the punching of the cards and the handhng of the machines
on this project have been done by members of the research staff, in order
that there be no betrayal of the confidence of the record. Each series of
punch cards has carried a particular portion of each history, e.g., the
frequencies and sources of outlet on one set, the record of the pre-adoles-
cent material on another set, the accumulative incidence data on another,
etc. Thirteen sets of cards (z.e., thirteen or more cards for each of the
histories) have been punched for the calculation of the data presented in
the present volume. Each of the thirteen cards in each set has carried the
identical record of the age, educational level, occupational class, and other
social backgrounds of the subject, mechanically reproduced on the
5
112
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
thirteen cards to insure identity. Thus it has been possible to correlate all
of the data on the thirteen sets with the same educational and social items.
By a gang punch technique, it is possible to correlate the material on one
card with the material on each other card.
Means. The averages which have been calculated have included mean
frequencies for the population in each group, and means for the “active
populations” in each group (Le,, for those individuals who had any activity
in that five-year period, in that particular type of sexual outlet). Means
have been calculated by the formula:
n
For those who are not familiar with statistical practice, it may be
pointed out that a mean represents the total number of measurements (in
the present instance, the total number of orgasms) in each group divided
by the number of individuals in the group. The mean represents the mid-
point of the measurements. Its position (in contrast to the position of the
median, which is described below) is therefore materially affected by the
presence of even a few high-rating individuals in a population; and al-
though the arithmetic mean is the average which is most commonly em-
ployed, both by most people in their everyday affairs and by the trained
statistician, it may give a distorted picture because a few high-rating individ-
uals affect the means more than a large population of low-rating in-
dividuals. Since nearly all of the distrfoution curves on human sex be-
havior are strongly skewed to the right (to the high frequency end of the
curve), the means are quite regularly higher than the location of the body
of the population would lead one to expect. Conversely, inactive cases in a
population (i.e., in the 0 class of frequencies) have a minimum effect on
the position of the mean.
Standard Deviation of the Mean. This is also known as the standard
error of the mean, and as the sigma of the mean. It is represented by the
symbol (Tm. The standard deviation of each mean has been calculated in
every instance, using the formula:
This formula is generally considered precise, and has the advantage of
being calculable with maximum efficiency on a calculating machine. For
the general reader, it may be pointed out that the standard deviation is
attached to each mean shown in this volume, as follows :
2.36 = 1 = 0.04
Mean Om
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
113
The is supposed to indicate the size of the error which may be involved
in the mean — the limits, plus or minus, within which the true mean (as
distingushed from the calculated mean) stands a 2 to 1 chance of lying.
The size of in relation to the size of the mean indicates the degree of
reliability of the calculated mean, and the smaller the the less the
probable error.
Medians. Median frequencies have been calculated, in every group, for
the total sample population, and for the active population. Medians have
been calculated by the formula:
If all the individuals in a group are arranged linearly in accordance with
the average frequencies of orgasm, the median designates the frequency of
the individual who stands exactly midway in that series. Half of the
individuals in the population have less frequent orgasm, half the individ-
uals have more frequent orgasm. While the median is an average which is
less often calculated by people in their everyday affairs, and while it is a
statistic which has often been neglected by statisticians, it answers the
very common question: “How frequently does the average individual
engage in such activity?” and it provides, therefore, a most useful type of
information. Recently statisticians have paid more attention to its signifi-
cance. The location of a median is determined solely by the sequence of the
individuals in a population, and It is unaffected by the low or high rates
of particular individuals. Means and medians are averages which sum-
marize two very different ideas, and in consequence their relative impor-
tance cannot properly be discussed. Means measure average frequencies,
medians describe the average individuals.
Persons not familiar with these matters should understand that where
most of the individuals in a sample belong in a frequency class which is
midway between the extremes of the distribution, and where an equal
number of individuals lie in symmetrical distribution on either side of the
mid-point, the mean becomes identical with the median. Where the curve
is asymmetric, the median becomes removed from the mean, sometimes
by a very considerable distance. The median is lower than the mean when
there are high-rating individuals who stand apart from the mass of the
population; and this is almost always true as regards nearly all types of
human sexual activity. The distance between the median and the mean is a
measure of the extent to which the frequency distribution for the popula-
tion (the frequency curve) is skewed in the direction of higher activity
(extends to the right of the area which includes the body of the population).
When a large portion of a population falls into the zero class (is without
activity) in any particular calculation, the median for that population is
so lowered that it loses significance. If more than 50 per cent of the popula-
114
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
tioB falls into the zero class, the mean is in the zero class and is useless for
any understanding of the situation. In the same instance, however, a
median calculated on the active portion of the population may have signifi-
cance.
Percents of Individual Outlet. On each history, calculations have been
made showing (in percents) the portion of his total sexual outlet which
the individual has derived from each possible source (masturbation,
dreams, coitus, etc.). The calculations have been made for the same five-
year periods as were involved in the calculations of frequencies of total
outlet.
Percents of Group Outlet. Similarly, frequency distributions have been
plotted for these percents of outlets; and means, standard errors of the
means, and medians have been routinely calculated on these percents for
the total population and for the active portion of each population. When
means are calculated in the usual way, the figures are the averages of all
these percentages. When medians are calculated in this way, they show the
percentage of the total outlet which the average individual derives from
each of the possible sources. Neither of these calculations, however,
answers the more usual question: “What percentage of the total orgasms of
the population as a whole is derived from each kind of sexual activity?”
In order to answer that question, it is necessary to compare the means of
the absolute frequencies (not the percentage frequencies) for each type of
out et in each group, with the mean of the absolute frequency of total
outlet in the same group. The sum of the percentages so derived should
total 100 per cent, which is the total outlet for the population.
Correlation Coefficients. At special points in the investigation, correla-
tion coefiicients and still other statistics have been calculated by standard
procedures. Unless otherwise indicated the correlation coefficients repre-
sent the Pearsonian r, calculated by the formula :
(n Zxy) — (zfxsfy)
V(n*sfx^)^((sf^) ((nzfy2) ~ (sfy)")
In correlating data for which only two classes are possible, as with a yes
or no situation, or with a record of presence or absence, the calculated
coefficients represent the tetrachoric r derived from the tables published
by Cheshire, Saffir, and Thurstone (1933).
Accumulative Incidence Curves, The one new statistical tool which we
have had to develop for this study has been a curve which will show the
number of persons who have ever had sexual experience of a particular
sort up to any particular age of their lives. One of the questions most
commonly asked is: “How many people do this — or that?” Specifically,
it is “How many people masturbate?” — “How many people have homo-
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
115
sexual experience?” — “What percentage of college students (or some other
group) have intercourse before they marry?” — etc., etc. The question does
not concern the number of persons having experience in any particular
year (which is the active incidence figure), as often as it involves a question
about the number of persons who ever have such experience in their lives,
or in some portion of it. The answers usually given in both popular and
technical literature are often incorrect because they are derived from curves
based on cumulations of percentages. Such curves show the percentage
increase of experienced persons (the increments) in each successive age
group, the increments being totalled up to the end of the period of time
under consideration. The cumulated percentages shown in Tables 28, 33,
35-37, and in Figures 15, 26, 27, 29, covering data on the ages involved in
adolescent developments among boys, are examples of such calculations.
Such curves are known as integral curves or ogives (the two “are funda-
mentally the same,” according to Pearl 1940:143), and these are the curves
that are ordinarily used in growth studies, learning studies, studies of
social developments, etc.
But ogives are satisfactory only when the activity under consideration
has involved a hundred percent of the population which is being studied,
or when the histories of all the individuals in the study are concluded as
far as that particular chapter in their lives is concerned. Cumulative per-
centage figures are quite sufficient in the cases cited above because all of
the individuals on which they afe based were adolescent when the data
were gathered, z.^., a hundred percent of the population was ultimately
involved, and all of the individuals had the experience (onset of adoles-
cence) which was being studied. An ogive would be correctly used if the
ages of first pre-marital intercourse were being studied, and the curve were
based on persons all of whom were married. In an ogive, the size of the
basic population is constant for each and every age group, since all of the
persons are either experienced or past the age at which they could possibly
begin experience, and the total sample in an ogive is the basis for calculating
the percentage of experienced individuals at each particular age.
Ogives, however, do not answer the question when only a portion of a
population is eligible for experience, or when the histories of any of the
individuals are not complete at the time the data are gathered. For instance,
if the question is one of determining how many people have extra-marital
intercourse, the real issue concerns the number of married people who ever
will have such experience before they die. This could be determined by the
use of an ogive if all persons in the study had been married, and if all the
histories were taken after each person had terminated his marriage by
separation or divorce, or after he had died. But since that is not easily
effected, a technique must be used which will show the number of experi-
enced persons in each age group, in relation to the number of persons in
116
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence Data: Coitus with Prostitutes
White Males, of College Level
*1
2
*3
4
5
*6
7
8
9
10
Age
Age,
first
exper.
S of 1
Age at
report,
exper.
individ.
S of 3
Ages
not
reached
2-4
Freq.
Age at
report,
inexper.
individ.
3 4- 6
Total
popu-
lation
Sof7,
up.
Years
in-
volved
1 5/8
Curve
%
Incre-
ment
13
3
3
3
2816
0.1
14
19
22
22
2816
0.8
-fO.7
15
42
64
64
1
1
2816
2.3
4-1.5
16
72
136
136
2
2
2815
4.8
4-2.5
17
119
255
8
255
68
76
2813
9.1
4-4.3
18
125
380
25
8
372
139
164
2737
13.6
4-4.5
19
100
480
44
33
447
191
235
2573
17.4
4-3.8
20
78
558
70
77
481
236
306
2338
20.6
4-3.2
21
41
599
74 1
147
452
286
360
2032
22.2
4-1.6
22
38
637
78
221
416
197
275
1672
24.9
4-2.7
23
21
658
64
299
359
181
245
1397
25.7
4-0.8
24
12
670
31
363
307
119
150
1152
26.6
+0.9
25
11
681
36
394
287
82
118
1002
28.6
4-2.0
26
9
690
29
430
260
81
no
884
29.4
4-0.8
27
5
695
18
459
236
57
75
774
30.5
4-1.1
28
6
701
23
477
224
42
65
699
32.0
4-1.5
29
2
703
17
500
203
44
61
634
32.0 I
4-0.0
30
4
707
10
517
190
' 34
44
573
33.2
4-1.2
31
707
16
527
180
21
37
529
34.0
4-0.8
32
2
709
18 ,
543
166
26
44
492
33.7
-0.3
33
1
710
11 1
561
149
25
36
448
33.3
-0.4
34
1
711
12 1
572
139
18
30
412
33.7
-hO.4
35
5
716
8
584
132
18
26
382 1
34.6
4-0.9
36
3
719
14
592 j
127
19
33
356
35.7
4-1.1
37
2
721
5
606
115
11
16
323
35.6
-0.1
38
1
722
9
611
111
18
27
307
36.2
4-0.6
39
722
9
620
102
14
23
280
36.4
4-0.2
40
1
723
6
629
94
13
19
257
36.6
4-0.2
41
723
10
635
88
7
17
238
37.0
4-0.4
42
723
12
645
78
17
29
221
35.3
-1.7
43
723
2
657
66
13
15
192
34.4
-0.9
44
723
2
659
64
14
16
177
36.2
4-1.8
45
723
3
661
62
7
10
161
38.5
4-2.3
46
723
3
664
59
7
10
151
39.1
4-0.6
47
723
11
667
56
14
25
141
39.7
4-0.6
48
723
3
678
45
3
6
116
38.8
-0.9
49
723
1
681
42
12
13
msm
38.2
-0.6
50-1-
1
724
42
682
42
55
97
97
43.3
4-5.1
Total
724
724
724
2092
2816
Table 12. Form for calculation of an accumulative incidence curve
Starred columns (*) are derived from punch cards; other columns are calculations based
on the starred columns. The curve derived from this table is shown in Figure 14.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
117
Explanation of an Accumulative Incidence Curve
Coitus with Prostitutes
Age.
L Age of first experience.
2. Summation of Column 1. This is the ogive. It is based on the fictitious
conception that the number of experienced persons in this population
cannot be increased beyond the number now shown.
3. Ages at reporting, of experienced individuals.
4. Summation of Column 3, one step in advance. This represents the ages
which the experienced individuals had not yet reached at the time they
contributed their histories.
5. Subtraction of Column 4 from Column 2. This represents the years
actually lived by the experienced individuals.
6. Ages at reporting, of inexperienced individuals.
7. Addition of Columns 3 + 6. This is the age distribution of all subjects
(both experienced and inexperienced) at time of reporting.
8. Summation of Column 7, in reverse. This is the basic population for
incidence calculations at each age.
9. Division of Column 5 by Column 8. This is the percent of the popula-
tion at each age with experience in that year, or in any previous year.
10. Increment, calculated from Column 9.
Note: Pre-adolescent experience was eliminated from this calculation
by punching cards only for experience that had occurred after the onset
of adolescence.
The problem was restricted at the lower ages by adolescence. If the prob-
lem had been restricted at the upper ages to a particular portion of the life
span, e.g., to pre-marital years, Column 1 would have been corrected by
sorting the experienced married individuals by age of marriage, and elimi-
nating those whose first experience with prostitutes occurred after marriage.
Column 3 would then have represented the sum of two groups of data :
(1) the ages at marriage of the experienced population, and (2) the ages
at reporting of the unmarried individuals who are experienced with prosti-
tutes. Column 6 would then have represented the same sort of sum for the
population which is not experienced with prostitutes.
118
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
each group who are eligible for such experience. This is the technique of the
accumulative incidence curves which we have used in the present study.
Similarly, an accumulative incidence curve should be used when the
ages of first pre-marital coital experience are to be determined for a popu-
lation which contains some individuals who are not yet married. In such a
problem, each point on the curve is based on a population which is inde-
pendently calculated for each age. Each point is fixed by determining the
number of persons in the sample who were not yet married, and by sub-
tracting the persons who are no longer available for such experience
because of marriage, or because the calculation has passed the ages at
which those persons had contributed histories.
In order to build an accumulative incidence curve, two or more sets of
data are needed on each individual involved in the study:
1. Age of first experience, for each subject,
2. Age of each subject at time of reporting.
3. In some cases, the age at which each subject became eligible for the
sort of experience which is being studied the age of adolescence, for
the study of post-adolescent experience; the age of marriage, for the study
of experience as a married person; etc.).
4. In some cases, the age at which each subject became ineligible for
experience (e.g., the age at adolescence, as the end of the period at which
(0 15 IQ 25 30 35 40 45 50
AGE
Figure 14. An accumulative incidence curve
Showing percentages of college males who have ever had intercourse with prostitutes
by each of the indicated ages. Based on data in Table 12.
STATISTICAL PROBLEMS
119
The derivation of an accumulative incidence curve was first worked out
for a small sample by a hand manipulation of 1058 actual history sheets,
adding them to piles as each individual became eligible, withdrawing them
as each individual became ineligible for experience. It took some time to
devise a procedure for Hollerith machine manipulation of punch cards on
the problem, but a remarkably simple set-up has now been arrived at. It
is shown in Table 12 where a specific problem is worked out in full detail
(Figure 14). Since this seems to be a statistical procedure which has not been
published before, it has seemed desirable to describe it at some length.
The usefulness of an accumulative incidence curve cannot be over-
emphasized. It supplies the answer to the commonest of questions : “How
many people have such experience?” From such a curve, one may at a
glance determine the percentage of the population which has ever had
experience by any given age. At the same time, the curve gives the best
possible basis for predicting what percentage of any group will ever, in its
lifetime, have such experience. This use of the curve for making predictions
is one of its most significant values. As already indicated, it is of prime
concern in any research that the conclusions be extensible to wider areas
than those covered by the particular sample which has been investigated,
and accumulative incidence curves are the most effective tools for so
translating data. An accumulative incidence curve can be built on data
from subjects whose histories are not yet complete, and thus it utilizes a
large body of data which is not^available for building an ogive (which
depends upon completed histories). An accumulative incidence curve is
less accurate nearer its end, because the populations which establish the
successive points on the curve become smaller in these upper age levels.
However, the area in which the curve becomes unreliable is well enough
indicated by the wider scatter of the individual points, which is in sharp
contrast to the smooth trends in the more reliable portions of the curve.
In conclusion, it should be emphasized that, after all of this statistical
manipulation, the calculations given in the present volume still should be
taken as approximations which are not to be pushed in detail, although
they undoubtedly show the general locus of the incidence and frequency
figures, with plus or minus errors of some few percent. In the next chapter
data will be given to show the size of the corrections that may need to be
made.
Chapter 4
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
Throughout research of the sort involved here, one needs to be continu-
ously conscious, as already pointed out, that it is impossible to get more
than approximations of the fact on the incidences and frequencies of
various types of human sexual behavior. Memory cannot be wholly
accepted as a source of information on what has actually happened in an
individual’s history. There is both deliberate and unconscious cover-up,
especially of the more taboo items, and in deahng with people of diverse
mental levels and educational backgrounds, there are differences in their
ability to comprehend and to answer questions with any precision in an
interview.
Moreover, it is difficult for a person who has not kept a diary, and espe-
cially for one who is not accustomed to thinking in statistical terms, to
know how to average events which occur as irregularly as sexual activities
usually do. The mass of the population is not often called upon to estimate
the frequencies with which they engage in any sort of activity, sexual or
otherwise. This is most obvious in dealing with poorly educated persons,
and with mentally low grade individuals. Most persons are inclined to re-
member frequencies for periods when the activities were regular, and to for-
get those periods in which there was material interference with activity. In
marital intercourse, for instance, there are menstrual periods, periods of
illness, periods of travel when spouses are apart, periods of preoccupation
with special duties which, affecting either of the two partners, interfere
with the regularity of intercourse for both of them. While other sources of
outlet may fill in some of these gaps, there are situations in which no kind
of sexual outlet is readily available; but these blank periods are not
always taken into account by a subject who is estimating averages for a
history.
It has, therefore, been important to secure some measure of the size of
the error for which allowance must be made on the calculations in the
present volume. A number of techniques have been used for these tests,
and a considerable body of information is now available on the validity
of the data. We shall want to continue with these tests as the study ex-
pands.
In Chapter 2 it was pointed out that the techniques of the interviewing
have provided a considerable control against exaggeration, but that there
is a greater Ukelihood of understatement and cover-up getting by without
being detected. In Chapter 3 the relation of validity to size of sample has
120
Validity of the data 121
been discussed. The present chapter covers the special devices which have
been used to test the significance of the calculated data.
RE-TAKES
In order to test the constancy of memory, re-takes of whole histories
have been made on 162 of the males and females who have contributed to
the present study. It is unfortunate that a larger series is not now available,
and this is one of the programs that should be expanded in the future prog-
ress of the research. In every case there has been a minimum lapse of
eighteen months between the original history and the re-take, and in many
cases three to seven years have intervened. The mean lapse has been 38.5
months. Re-takes, of course, cover activities which had not been engaged
in until after the time of the original history; but with allowance for that
fact, correlations have been made between the two records, for a diverse
fist of representative items. The results are shown in Table 13. There are
no calculations of reliability which are more illuminating than these, and
the table merits detailed study.
The analysis indicates that memory and/or cover-up, or other chance
factors, introduce errors on certain items and on certain whole groups of
items, while there is greater validity on other items. The incidence data are
the most consistent. The coefficients of correlation (tetrachoric) on inci-
dences are better than 0.9 in every case and better than 0.95 in all but three
of the cases. The number of identical responses is better than 90 per cent,
in every instance. The differences between the means calculated for the
original histories, and the means calculated for the re-takes, are less than
2.4 per cent in most cases. The differences are larger only in regard to
masturbation and to the homosexual, where the error is about 4 per cent.
Throughout this volume, the incidence figures may, therefore, be accepted
as very reliable. Many persons will find it difficult to believe that the high
incidences shown for several types of sexual activity are not exaggerations
of the fact, but every calculation indicates that they are understatements,
if they are in error at all.
The next most accurate material covers the vital statistics of the popu-
lation. There are data on the age of the subject, his marital status, the ages
of his parents, the number of his brothers and sisters, his educational and
religious background, etc. The coefficients of correlation (Pearsonian) are
higher than 0.8 in every instance, and in six cases out of eight they are
higher than 0.9. There are identical responses on the original histories and
re-takes for better than 80 per cent of the subjects, on eight out of twelve
items. The lowest scores concern the ages of the mother, of the father, of
the wife at marriage, and of the husband at marriage — in that descending
order. The differences between the means for the original histories, taken
as a group, and the means for the re-takes are, however, immaterial, and
the averages shown throughout the present volume can be accepted with
Comparing Originals and Re-takes on 162 Subjects
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123
108 males and 54 females are involved. The lapse between originals and re-takes ranged between 18 and 88 months (7 years and 4 months). The mean
lapse is 38 . 5 months. The more than 200 “cases” in the frequency data depend on the fact that a single history may contribute data on more than one
5-year period.
124
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN TEE HUMAN MALE
little reservation. On the other hand, wherever the vital statistics on an
individual history are to be used in a calculation, there should be allow-
ances of a year, plus or minus.
Reports on ages of first experience in each type of sexual activity are
much less accurate. The coefficients of correlation vary between 0.5 and
0.8. The number of precisely identical responses is quite low, ranging from
13 per cent to 57 per cent on most items. The number of responses that
are identical within one year, plus or minus, is much higher, lying between
70 and 87 per cent on more than half of the items. However, in spite of the
inadequacies of individual histories, the means for the whole population
may be accepted with less question. The differences between the means for
the originals and the means for the re-takes ordinarily constitute 5 per cent
or less of the quantity involved. The lowest scores on memory of first
experience pertain to the pre-adolescent sex play and to the first experiences
in nocturnal emissions and heterosexual petting. These items are more
indefinite and therefore more difficult to remember than such things as
first ejaculation, first coitus, or first experience in other socio-sexual
activities.
Reports on frequencies of sexual activity give correlations which run
close to 0.6 on all of the items. This is a significant correlation, but not as
reliable as that obtained on incidences or on many of the other items. The
percents of identical responses are low, lying between 25 and 50 percent,
and the percents of identical responses phis or minus one unit of measure-
ment are still less than 65 per cent in most cases. The error on the means
lies between 5 and 10 per cent on most items, and that much allowance
should be made on any statement in this volume concerning frequencies of
sexual activity. While the frequency data on any individual history are
undoubtedly approximations to the fact, they are not accurate enough to be
pushed in detail.
The poorest memory applies to the ages at which the individual first
learns particular things, e.g., the age at which he fiirst learns there is such a
thing as intercourse, pregnancy, prostitution, etc. Even when a leeway
of two years is allowed as identity, the coefficients of correlation are no
higher than 0.4 and 0.5, and the number of identical responses is under
50 per cent. If an additional allowance is granted of plus or minus two more
years, the number of identical responses is brought up to something over
80 per cent on most items. This means that a five-year allowance must be
made for any answer in this area, z.e., an allowance of plus or minus 2.5
on the given answer. Here again, however, the means calculated for whole
populations are much better, and a correction of something between 1
ai|d 5 per cent seems a sufficient allowance.
There is no way of knowing whether the responses are more accurate on
the first histories or on their re-takes, or whether either of them represents
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
125
identity with the fact. Re-takes test the constancy of memory and the con-
stancy of the degree of cover-up, rather than the validity of the record.
There is reason for believing that memory which stays as fixed as it does
on most of the items in this study is not wholly capricious, but allowance
must be made for the fact that one may come to believe in a fiction on
which he has decided at some time in his life. In general, the re-takes raise
the incidence figures and, strikingly enough, they raise the record of age of
first experience, first knowledge, etc. This suggests that as the individual
grows older the period of beginning any type of activity seems to him to
move up, to some degree. These are matters of broad import in psychology,
but their more extensive examination has not yet been possible within the
confines of the present study.
COMPARISONS OF SPOUSES
The histories of the two spouses in any marriage should contain a cer-
tain number of identities, and comparisons of such pairs of histories have
given some insight into the validity of memory. Therefore, in this study,
especial attention has been given to securing histories from spouses, and
231 pairs of spouses are the bases of the comparisons shown in Table 14.
The items analyzed in the table include some vital statistics, the record of
coital frequencies, and details concerning the foreplay, positions, and other
techniques employed in the marital coitus. On the whole, the record shows
an amazing agreement between the statements of the husbands and of the
wives in each marriage, although allowance must be made for the possi-
bility that there may have been collusion between some of the partners,
and a conscious or unconscious agreement to distort the fact.
The coefficients of correlation between the repHes of the husbands and
the repHes of the respective wives have the following values:
Correlations in Replies of Spouses
Coefficients
Items
Percentage
of Items
Cumulated
Percentages
0.50-0.59
2
6.3
100.0
0.60-0.69
6
18.8
93.7
0.70-0.79
10
31.2
74.9
0.80-0.89
5
15.6
43.7
0.90-0.99
9
28.1
28.1
Totals
32
100.0
In regard to three-quarters of the items, the coefficient of correlation
between the replies of the husbands and of the wives is 0.7 or better; for
nearly half of the items it is 0.8 or better ; and for more than a quarter of the
126
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparing Data prom 231 Pairs of Spouses
1
CASES
ITEMS
INVOLVED
UNIT
OF
MEASURE-
MENT
IDENT.
RSPNS
%
WITH-
IN
1 UNIT
OF
IDENT.
%
COFFFIC.
OF
CORREL.
MEAN OF
husband’s
REPORTS
MEAN OF
wife’s
REPORTS
DIFF.
OF
means:
d^-9
Vital Statistics
Pears, r
229
Years married
1 year
88.6
96.1
0.99
6.35 =b0.42
6.40 ± 0.42
-0.05
214
Pre-marital
acquaint.
12 mon.
57.9
86.9
0.88
42.11 =i=2.83
40.88 ±2.74
4-1.23
156
Engagement
4 mon.
57.1
78.2
0.83
12.64 =b 1.03
12.85 ± 1.07
-0.21
226
Age, (f at marr.
1 year
68.6
97,3
0.99
27.27 ±0.37
27.17 ± 0.37
40.10
228
Age, 9 at marr.
1 year
61.8
92.5
0.63
24.88 ±0.32
24.75 ±0.32
+0.13
231
No. children
1 child
99.6
100.0
0.99
0.90 ±0.09
0.90 ±0.09
0.00
185
No. abortions
1 event
90.3
98.4
0.76
0.32 ±0.06
0.41 ± 0.08
-0.09
227
Lapse, first
coitus — marr.
6 mon.
74.4
89.4
0.85
5.09 ±0.88
4.72 ± 0.86
40.37
87
Lapse, marr.
— first birth
6 mon.
66.7
89.7
0.96
28.05 ± 1.99
28.19 ±2.01
-0.14
220
Educ. level, cf
2 years
84.1
99.1
0.97
16.23 ±0.26
16.16 ± 0.25
40.07
223
Educ. level, 9
2 years
79.4
97.8
0.92
14.41 ± 0.21
14.67 ± 0.21
-0.26
219
Occup. class, (f
1 of 9
91.8
98.6
0.98
5.32 ±0.14
5.27 ±0.14
40,05
Coital Freq.
223
Max. freq.,
marit. coitus
2/wk.
33.2
68.2
0.54
6.72 ±0.31
6.74 ± 0.31
-0.02
225
Av. freq.,
early marr.
1/wk.
34.7
73.3
0.50
2.73 ± 0.13
3.00 ±0.14
-0.27
226
Av. freq., now
1/wk.
56.6
88.1
0.60
1.91 ± 0.11
2.21 ± 0.13
-0.30
218
% with
orgasm, 9
10%
55.0
71.1
Q.75
69.82 ±2.16
66.83 ±2.26
42.99
Techniques in
Tetra-
% Husbands
% Wives
coital foreplay
choric r
ReportingYes
ReportingYes
229
Kiss
Yes, No '
97
0.92
95.6 ± 1 35
99.1 ± 0.62
-3.5
228
Deep kiss
Yes, No
85
0.72
85.1 ± 2.36
82.0 ± 2.54
43.1
228
Hand— 9
1
breast
Yes, No
95
0.78
95.6 ± 1.36
196.5 ± 1.22
-0.9
228
Mouth — 9
breast 1
Yes, No
89
0.79
90.4 ±2.04
86.0 ± 2.43
44.4
229
Hand — 9
genitalia
Yes, No
90
0.61
92.6 ± 1.73
92.2 ± 1.77
40.4
226
Hand —
1
genitalia
Yes, No
85
0.70
83.6 ± 2.46
85.8 ± 2.32 !
- .2
220
Mouth — 9
genitalia
Yes, No
82
0.84
35.9 ± 3.23
37.3 ± 3.26
-1.4
226
Mouth — cf
genitalia
Yes, No
85
0.93
33.6 ± 3.14
35.4 ± 3.18
-1.8
Coital techniq.
228
Male above
Yes, No
93
0.75
94.3 ± 1.54
93.5 ± 1.63
40,8
228
Female above
Yes, No
76
0.74
54.8 ± 3.30
49.1 ± 3.31
45.7
224
On side
Yes, No
76
0,68
39.3 ± 3.26
37.1 ±3.23
42.2
221
Sitting
Yes, No
81
0.63
19.0 ±2.64
17.6 ±2.56
41.4
227
Standing
Yes, No
89
0.64
10.1 ±2.00
7.9 ± 1.79
42.2
224
Rear entrance
Yes, No
83
0.77
24.6 ± 2.88
17.4 ±2.53
47.2
186
Coitus nude
Yes, No
90
0.82
87.1 ± 2.46
89.2 ±2.28
-2 1
223
Multiple
orgasm, cf*
Yes, No
95
0.74
4.9 ± 1.45
4.1 ± 1.33
40.8
Table 14. Comparisons of data obtained from spouses
VALIDITY OF THE DATA 127
items it is 0.9 or better. These are very high scores, as correlations go in
social and psychological studies.
The number of identical replies received from the two spouses in each
marriage is as follows :
Percents
Exact Identity
I Within One Unit (=t) of Identity
of
Identical
No. of
Percentage
Cumulated
Percentage
Cumulated
Replies ;
Items
Involved
of
Items
Percentages
Cases
of
Cases
Percentages
30-39
2
6.2
100.0
40-49
0
0.0
93.8
50-59
4
12.5
93.8
60-69
3
9.4
81.3
1
6.2
100.0
70-79
4
12.5
71.9
3
18.8
93.8
80-89
10
31.3
59.4
4
25.0
75.0
90-99
9
28.1
28.1
8
50.0
50.0
Totals
32
100.0
16
100.0
100.0
In regard to nearly 60 per cent of the items, the replies were identical for
80 per cent or more of the couples. In regard to three-quarters of the items,
they were within one unit of identity for 80 per cent of the couples. These
close identities are particularly impressive when it is remembered that in
many instances there were intervals of two to six years or more between
the interviews with the two spouses. On half of the items, there is near
identity in something between 90 and 100 per cent of the histories. In most
instances, near identity is about all that a student of behavior is interested
in ; it rarely matters whether the age of the spouse is a year one way or the
other of the reported age, whether the other spouse has had six years or
eight years of schooling, whether the male is a semi-skilled or a more
skilled mechanic. Allowances are also to be made for the fact that some
persons calculate their ages as from the last birthday, and some persons
from the forthcoming birthday, and that a difference of a year in two re-
ports may, in actuality, mean identity.
Averages for the entire group of histories are still closer than the correla-
tions on individual histories. The differences between the means calculated
for all the males and the means calculated for all the females are quite
insignificant on all but a few items, as an examination of Table 14 will
show.
The coeflacients of correlation and the percentages of identical replies
are low only in regard to the frequencies of marital coitus, and in regard to
the percentage of the time in which the female reaches orgasm during the
marital coitus. On the latter point, the male believes that his female part-
128
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
ner experiences orgasm more often than she herself reports ; but it is to be
noted that the wife sometimes deceives her husband deliberately on that
point. In regard to the frequencies of marital intercourse, there is an inter-
esting psychological element involved. It is often the female who reports
the higher frequencies, and this is undoubtedly related to the fact that
females often complain of their husbands’ desire for more coitus. Conse-
quently, the females may be overestimating the actual frequencies. Simi-
larly, the husbands regularly complain of their wives’ lack of desire for
coitus and, in consequence, are probably underestimating the frequencies
with which they do have it. On individual histories, errors on this particu-
lar point may be expected in as many as two-thirds of the cases ; but in
regard to averages for whole populations, the correction is, again, remark-
ably small.
For most items of the sort covered in this study, it may be expected that
something between 80 and 99 per cent of the subjects will give replies that
will be verified, independently, by the partners in their marriages.
OTHER CROSS-CHECKS
In addition to re-takes and pairs of histories from spouses, a variety of
other cross-checks have provided some further measure of the accuracy of
memory. For instance, the internal consistency of a history, as it is pieced
together in an interview, is of considerable significance as a test of validity.
In each case, the subject is asked to supply a great many dates and records
of ages in a sequence which is far from chronologic. Nevertheless, there is
usually considerable coherence in the chronology that comes out of such
a tabulation. Some time, it may be possible to reduce this matter to more
precise calculation.
In Chapter 2, in connection with a discussion of interviewing techniques,
it was pointed out that a skillful interviewer develops a certain abihty to
recognize falsification and cover-up when taking a history, and does have
a considerable measure of the validity of the record he is getting, even
though it may not be possible to reduce such a measure to statistical terms.
In Chapter 2 it was also pointed out that the trained interviewer must
have a considerable fund of information concerning patterns of sexual
behavior in different segments of the population. The constancy with
which such patterns are followed in individual histories is very high, as
later chapters (particularly Chapter 10) in the present volume will show.
While it may be questioned whether a subject sometimes reports what he
thinks is usual and acceptable in his social group, it should be emphasized
that exceedingly few subjects have any idea of the patterns of behavior
of other persons in their group. The histories cover such a mass of detail
as few persons have ever discussed with their friends, and they simply do
not know how those friends or any other persons in the same group are
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
129
answering such questions. When 90 to 95 per cent of the persons in any
social level report histories which agree with the patterns shown in Chapter
10, they not only establish the nature of the group patterns, but establish
the validity of their own reports as well.
Further cross-checks are provided by sexual partners other than spouses.
Whether they are involved in heterosexual or homosexual relations, each
partner may supply some information about the other individual’s history.
The cross-references have been kept, and it may be possible to subject the
material to statistical comparisons when the series are large enough. Now
it can be reported that the secondhand information secured in this way has
proved to be surprisingly accurate in most cases where there has been a
chance to check it. Although none of this secondhand material has been
used in any of the calculations in the present volume, it has been of value
as a means of testing the accuracy of the related histories. Within the con-
fines of the present chapter, a single example of this sort will have to suffice.
This example concerns the accuracy of the incidence data on the homo-
sexual experience had by men in penal institutions and reported by them
while they are under confinement in such institutions. This is material
about which it is especially diflBcult to secure information, although in
nearly all prisons there is a continuous undercurrent of gossip concerning
such activity. The gossip reflects a mixture of desire for experience and
bitter condemnation of such activity — a conflict between the individual’s
personal needs, and his training in the social traditions on matters of sex.
There is, of course, official condemnation of such activity; and this may
involve, especially in institutions for men, severe corporal punishment, loss
of privileges, solitary confinement, and often an extension by a year or more
of the sentence of an inmate who is discovered, suspected, or merely
accused of homosexual relations. To persuade such an inmate to contrib-
ute a record of his activity while he is still in prison, is a considerable test
of the ability of an interviewer. Nonetheless, we have gotten such records
from something between 35 and 85 per cent of the inmates of every insti-
tution in which we have worked.
In one prison, a male who was well acquainted with the institution
agreed to take the list of three hundred and fifty men who had contributed
histories to this study, and to indicate which of them were, to his knowl-
edge, currently having homosexual relations. About most of these men he
knew nothing, but from the list he picked 32 with whom he claimed to have
had relations, or whom he had actually seen in such relations. The infor-
mant never knew how his record compared with the data we had secured
in the interviewing, but the histories showed that 27 of the 32 men (Le,,
about 85 per cent!) had admitted their experience when they were first
interviewed. Two of the others had left the institution before they could be
interviewed again, but the remaining three readily admitted their activity
130
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
when they were called back for a second conference. This provided a check
on the validity of secondhand reports and, incidentally, gave some measure
of the extent of the cover-up that we are getting in the histories. Considering
the nature of the item involved, this 15 per cent failure probably approaches
the maximum which will be found anywhere in this study.
MEMORY VERSUS PHYSICAL FINDINGS
It is possible to make comparisons of certain of the data obtained by
interviews in the present study, and data obtained in some other studies
Percent of Boys Beginning Pubic Hair Development
AGE *
CRAMPTON
1908
DIMOCK
1937
SCHONFELD
1943
PRESENT
STUDY
Cumu-
Cumu-
Cumu-
Cumu-
%
lated
%
/o
lated
%
/o
lated
%
%
lated
%
9
0.2
0.2
10
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.2
11
7.0
7.0
15.0
17.0
12.0
12.0
7.7
9.9
12
24.0
31.0
21.0
38.0
30.0
42.0
25.5
35.4
13
28.0
59.0
22.0
60.0 i
25.0
67.0
33.5
68.9
14
25.0
84.0
27.0
87.0 !
»12.0
79.0
22.8
91.7
15 1
11.0
95.0
11.0
98.0
19.0
98.0
5.5
97.2
16
4.0
99.0
2.0
100.0
1,0
99.0
2.0
99.2
17
1.0
100.0
1.0
100.0
0.7
99.9
18
99,9
19
99.9
20
0.1
100.0
Cases
3835
1406
1475
2511
Mean
13.44 1.51
13.08
i
13.45=1=0.03
Median
13.17
13.43
Table 15. Comparisons of data obtained in four studies on pubic hair development
The data from the Crampton, Dimock, and Schonfeld studies were based upon phys-
ical examinations of young boys. The present study has been dependent upon the mem-
ory of older persons recalling their adolescent experiences.
from direct observations on similar groups of males. The readiest body of
such material concerns adolescent developments. In Table 15 and Figure
15, data on pubic hair development, drawn from three of the observational
studies (Crampton 1908, Dimock 1937, Schonfeld 1943), are compared
with data contributed by the subjects in the present study, on the basis of
recall. The near identity of the recall curve and the other curves is remark-
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
131
able, especially in consideration of the fact that many subjects protest that
such an item as pubic hair development is recalled with less certainty than
most other items. The larger series in the present study gives a growth
curve which is smoother and more usual in type than the curves which some
of the smaller series give. It is to be noted, again, that though this compari-
son goes a long way to justify recall as a source of averages for whole
groups, it does not demonstrate how accurate the memory of any partic-
ular individual may be concerning his own individual history.
There are a number of other observational studies of adolescent develop-
ments (cited in Chapter 5), but unfortunately none of them provides data
AGE
Figure 15. Comparison of memory with observational data
Record for age of onset of growth of pubic hair. The Crampton, Dimock, and Schon-
feld studies based upon physical examinations of boys. The present study based on
memory of older persons recalling adolescent experience.
which can be used in comparison with data from the present study. Some
of these other studies are based on populations which are too small to
be significant. Some of them appear to involve gross errors. In several
cases, the other studies have used definitions of adolescent characters
which are different from those used in the present study, e.g., voice change
is defined in some of the studies as the first sign of deepening voice (which
is in reality often a pre-adolescent development), and pubic hair is defined
as kinky hair (which may not appear until sometime after the first distinct
but straight hair develops in the pubic area). It will, therefore, be necessary
to wait until further observational data are available for further testing of
the validity of recall on these characters.
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
133
HUNDRED PERCENT SAMPLES
When a study of everyday people discloses such unexpected behavior
as the present study has disclosed, it is natural enough that one should
wonder whether there has been some bias in the investigator’s choice of
subjects or his emphasis in interviewing. On this point, it has already been
explained (Chapter 3) that the persons who have contributed histories have
represented considerable samples and, whenever possible, hundred percent
samples of each group that has been involved in the study. There has been
next to no selection of subjects on the basis of anything that was pre-
viously known about their histories. The only exceptions have come in
regard to a few extreme items which, as already explained (Chapter 3),
could not have been obtained by way of hundred percent samples ; and
most of the histories have come from unselected individuals in whole
groups. Such unselectcd series have been the prime bases for the incidence
figures in this volume. See the preceding chapter for more detailed com-
parisons of the data obtained from hundred percent samples, and from
the remainder of the population.
COMPARISONS OF INTERVIEWERS
One of the questions most frequently raised about the present research,
and a thoroughly legitimate question about any research, concerns
the possibility of another investigator duplicating the results. Moreover,
in any project which has involved two or more investigators, it is
important to compare the results obtained by each, before one can
fairly add together the data obtained by the several interviewers. In con-
sequence, throughout the years of this investigation repeated comparisons
of that sort have been made.
Comparisons of the data obtained by different investigators can be
significant only when the persons contributing histories to each investi-
gator belong to the same sex, race, marital status, age, educational level,
rural-urban group, religious group, etc. It is meaningless to compare
data drawn from quite different sorts of groups. Even when comparisons
are made for groups that are the products of six-way breakdowns, which
is the limit possible with the sample now at hand, there are certainly many
other factors which affect variation within each group. Consequently, it
is not to be expected that the material obtained by two interviewers work-
ing with two different populations, even after a six-way breakdown,
should be quite identical.
Table 16 compares the data obtained by the three authors of the present
volume. The table includes all of those groups from which each of the
interviewers has obtained at least 300 histories. To compare smaller popu-
lations would have introduced errors consequent on size of sample (Chap-
ter 3). The senior author began accumulating histories some years before
134
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Freqxjency Data Obtained by Three Interviewers
group
inter-
viewer
cases
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid
%
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Age 11-15
Total Outlet
Kinsey
644
3.05 ± 0 14
2.11
93.9
3.24 ± 0 15
2.30
Pomeroy
607
2.58 ± 0 11
1.83
97.2
2.65 ± 0.11
1.90
Martin
325
2.69 0.16
2.12
96.0
2.80 0.17
2.23
Masturbation
Kinsev
644
2.36 ± 0.12
1.46
77.8
3 03 0.14
2.17
Pomeroy
607
2,01 ± 0 10
1 21
81.7
2.46 ± 0.12
1.75
Martin
325
2.32 i 0.17
1.70
82.5
2.82 0.19
2.28
Nocturnal Emiss.
Kinsey
644
0.43 i 0.03
0.15
74.1
0 58 =t= 0.04
0.31
Pomeroy
607
0.37 =fc 0 03
0 17
76,3
0.49 ± 0.03
0.29
Martin
325
0.28 ± 0.02
0.12
74.8
0.37 ± 0 03
0.26
Pre-mar. Coitus
Kinsey
644
0.09 ± 0.03
0.00
6.8
1.27 ± 0.46
0 17
Pomeroy
607
0.03 ± 0.01
0.00
4.9
0 54 ± 0 16
0 20
Martin
325
0.04 ± 0 02
0.00
6.8
0 63 ± 0.27
0.14
Homosexual
Kinsey
644
0.09 =i= 0.02
0.00
21.1
0.43 =fc 0 06
0.10
Pomeroy
607
0 10 =1= 0 02
0.00
21.3
0.45 ± 0.08
0.09
Martin
325
0.02 ± 0.004
0.00
17.5
0 12 ± 0.02
0.07
Age 16-20
Total Outlet
Kinsey
662
3.05 ± 0.12
2.30
99.7
3.06 =i= 0.12
2 31
Pomeroy
612
2.50 ± 0.09
1 87
99 8
2.50 =b 0 09
1.88
Martin
331
2.66 ± 0.13
2,17
100 0
2.66 ± 0.13
2.17
Masturbation
Kinsey
662
2.11 ± 0.10
1.33
88.1
2 40 ± 0.11
1 66
Pomeroy
612
1 72 =*= 0 08
0.99
86.9
1 98 ± 0.09
1.40
Martin
331
1.99 =b 0 13
• 1.48
89.4
2.22 =i= 0.14
1.76
Nocturnal Emiss.
Kinsey
662
0.47 =t: 0.03
0.27
91.2
0.51 0.03
0.31
Pomeroy
612
0.43 ± 0.02
0.27
91.5
0.47 ± 0 02
0.31
Martin
331
0.36 =±= 0.02
0.24
89.7
0.40 ± 0.03
0.28
Pre-mar. Coitus
Kinsey
662
0.26 0.04
0.00
37.3
0.70 =1= 0.11
0.19
Pomeroy
612
0.15 =1= 0.02
0.00
35.5
0.44 ± 0.05
0.15
Martin
331
0.19 =1= 0.03
0.00
38.4
0.49 =i= 0 07
0.11
Homosexual
Kinsey
662
0.08 =fc 0.02
0.00
14.8
0.50 0.09
0 09
Pomeroy
612
0.06 ± 0.01
O.CO
17.6
0.33 ± 0.06
0.08
Martin
331
0.02 =t= 0.005
0.00
11.8
0.15 ± 0.04
0 07
Age 21-25
Total Outlet
Kinsey
533
2,64 =L 0.12
1.79
99.6
2.65 ± 0.13
1.80
Pomeroy
432
2.18 ± 0.09
1.70
100. 0
2.18 ± 0.09
1.70
Masturbation
Kinsey
533
1,43 0.09
0.62
86 3
1.66 =1= 0.10
0.87
Pomeroy
432
1.12 0.06
0.59
87 7
1.27 ± 0 07
0.74
Nocturnal Emiss.
Kinsey
533
0.39 =1= 0.03
0.23
87.1
0.45 ± 0.03
0.29
Pomeroy
432
0.38 =fc 0,02
0.25
87.7
0.43 0.02
0.30
Pre-mar. Coitus
Kinsey
533
0.49 0.06
0.04
57.4
0.85 =i= 0.11
0.29
Pomeroy
432
0.40 ± 0.04
0.03
54.6
0.72 ± 0.07
0.30
Homosexual
Kinsey
533
0.11 0.03
0.00
10.7
1.05 =fc 0,22
0.34
Pomeroy
432
0.08 0.02
0.00
8.8
0.96 0.20
0.37
Table 16. Comparisons of data obtained by different interviewers
Comparisons confined to groups with over 300 histories, of same background for sex, race,
marital status, educational level (all of college level), and age. Based on histories taken during
last four years of the research.
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
135
the other two authors were involved; and on the chance that the first
investigator’s techniques of interviewing and his methods of recording
may have varied in that time, the comparisons in Table 16 are confined to
the data obtained by each of the three interviewers during the same period
of time, namely, the more recent four years of this study.
The most important conclusions to be drawn from these comparisons
are:
1. Three different interviewers have obtained very similar data from
three different populations. Out of the 75 sets of calculations which appear
in Table 16, 35 are so similar that the differences are immaterial — closer
than any person could calculate about his own history. Such identity is
amazing. There seems no reason to doubt that any other group of investi-
gators could dupHcate these results if their scientific objectivity and their
methods in interviewing were comparable to those which have been used
in the present study. In about 10 of the 75 sets of calculations, there are
more or less material differences between the lowest and the highest
figures.
2. The incidence data are more nearly identical for the three inter-
viewers than the frequency data. There is close identity in incidences even
for such a taboo item as the homosexual where, it will be noted, the active
incidence figures in each of the five-year periods prove to be five to ten
times as high as any which have previously been pubhshed. Whether the
actual incidence figure for the homosexual in any particular group is
17.5 per cent or 21.3 per cent is of no great moment. The fact remains that
the general locus of this, and of all the other figures, is established by the
independent interviewing of three persons drawing their samples very
largely at random, or from hundred percent groups which (especially in
the case of the college level) constituted a considerable portion of the
sample.
3. Some selection has been involved in assigning subjects to interviewers.
Older persons, persons with more promiscuous histories (whether hetero-
sexual or homosexual), and persons who were expected to prove reticent
because of socially unusual items which were known to be in their histories,
have more often been interviewed by the senior investigator, especially
during the early years in the training of the younger members of the staff^.
This undoubtedly accounts for some of the differences between inter-
viewers : for the lower homosexual incidence and frequency figures for the
third interviewer, for the higher frequency data on pre-marital intercourse
for the first interviewer, etc.
4. The frequency data for masturbation and for pre-marital intercourse
(and in consequence for total outlet) are highest in every age group for the
first interviewer and lowest for the second interviewer. The incidence and
136
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Data Obtained by Three Interviewers
Accumulative Incidence: Masturbation
Educational Level 13+
AGE
HISTORIES TAKEN
BY KINSEY
HISTORIES TAKEN
BY POMEROY
HISTORIES TAKEN
BY MARTIN
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
1783
0.0
595
0.2
324
0.0
9
1783
0.3
595
0.5
324
0.0
10
1783
2.3
595
2.7
324
1.9
11
1783
8.1
595
11.4
324
9.3
12
1783
26.4
595
31.1
324
29.0
13
1783
52.3
595
56.3
324
50.0
14
1783
72.4
595
72.8
324
69.1
15
1783
79.6
595
80.8
324
81.5
16
1782
83.6
595
83.4
324
88.3
17
1781
86.6
594
86.0
324
90.4
18
1756
88.7
573
88.7
306
90.8
19
1642
90.0
548
89.2
283
91.5
20
1472
90.6
522
90.8
255
93.3
21
1273
91.4
472 »
91.7
216
94.0
22
1038
92.2
413
92.7
167
94.6
23
874
92.6
370
93.5
127
96.1
24
740
92.7
314
93.3
86
94.2
25
663
93.5
275
94.2
56
96.4
26
582
94.2
250
96.0
27
512
94.7
222
96.4
28
467
94.6
202
96.5 i
29
432
94.2
179
96.6
30
400
95.0
154
96.8
31
378
94.7
135
96.3
32
353
94.9
125
96.8
33
322
94.7
114
96.5
34
299
95.0
101
98.0
35
277
94.9
95
97.9
36
261
95.0
86
97.7
37
233
94.8
81
97.5
38
222
95.0
78
97.4
39
207
94.7
66
97.0
40
191
95.3
60
98.3
Table 17. Comparisons of data obtained by dijBferent interviewers, on
mastmbation
Based on males of the college level.
PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION
DATA OBTAINED BY DIFFERENT INTERVIEWERS
Figures 16-18. Comparing accumulative incidence data obtained by different
interviewers
Data on masturbation, nocturnal emissions, and intercourse of any sort.
137
138
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Data Obtained by Three Different Interviewers
Accumulative Incidence Data
Nocturnal Emissions
Educ. Level 13+
age
histories
taken
BY KINSEY
histories
taken
BY POMEROY
HISTORIES j
taken
BY MARTIN
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY KINSEY
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY POMEROY
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
1779
0.0
595
0.0
324
0.0
586
0.0
191
0.0
9
1779
0.0
595
0.0
324
0.0 1
586
0.0
191
0.0
10
1779
j 0.4
595
0.5 !
324
1.2
586
0.0
191
0.5
11
1779
2.6
595
3.5 1
324
5.2
585
1.2
191
1.0
12
1779
10.2
595
14.6
324
13.9
585
6.2
191
9.4
13
1779
25.7
595
35.8
324
34.6
585
13.5 1
191
19.4
14
1779
48.6
595
60.0
324
55.6
583
27.8
191
33.0
15
1779
65.8
595
75.3
324
72.8
582
41.8
186
52.2
16
1778
78.0
595
86.1
324
84.0
574
57.0
177
66.7
17
1777
86.1
594
89.2
324
87.7
556
68.2
155
74.2
18
1752
90.5
573
92.5
306
90.8
536
78.5
144
84.0
19
1638
92.4
548
92.9
283
,92.9
514
83.1
129
86.8
20
1468
93.4
522
94.1
255
93.7
493
86.8
116
89.7
21
1269
94.2
472
95.3
216
94.9
475
89.1
110
90.9
22
1036
94.4
413
95.6
167
94.6
459
91.7
99
91.9
23
873
94.5
370
95.9
127
94.5
443
93.0
95
91.6
24
739
95.5
314
96.2
86
95.3
425
95.1
90
94.4
25
662
96.1
275
97.1
56
94.6
407
96.1
83
95.2
26
581
96.2
250
98.0
395
96.7
81
96.3
27
511
96.1
222
97.7
383
97.7
77
96.1
28
466
96.4
202
98.0
369
97.8
76
96.1
29
431
96.5
179
97.8
347
97.7
72 1
95.8
30
399
97.0
154
98.1
334
97.9
65 !
96.9
31
377
96.8
135
99.3
318
97.8
59 i
98.3
32
352
97.2
125
99.2
306
98.4
57
98.2
33
321
97.2
114
99.1
290
98.6
53
98.1
34
298
97.7
101
100.0
281
98.9
53
98.1
35
276
98.2
95
100.0
269
99.3
50
98.0
36
260
98.5
86
100.0
257
99.2
37
232
98.3
81
100.0
242
99.2
38
221
98.6
78
100.0
235
99.1
39
206
98.5
66
100.0
215
99.1
40
190
98.9
60
100.0
196
99.0
Total Intercourse
Educ. Level 0-8
Table 18. Comparisons of data obtained by different interviewers, on nocturnal
emissions and on heterosexual coitus
The coitus data include intercourse from any source, pre-marital, marital, extra-
marital, or post-marital, with companions or with prostitutes.
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
139
Comparisons of Data Obtained by Three Different Interviewers
Accumulative Incidence Data
Total Pre-marital Intercourse
Educ. Level 13+
Total Intercourse with
Prostitutes
Educ. Level 0-8
AGE
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY KINSEY
inSTORIES
TAKEN
BY POMEROY
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY MARITN
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY KINSEY
HISTORIES
TAKEN
BY POMEROY
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
1
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
1783
0.0
595
0.0
324
0.0
587
0.0
191
0.0
9
1783
0.0
595
0.0
324
0.3
587
0.0
191
0.0
10
1783
0.0
595
0.0
324
0.3
586
0.0
191
0.0
11
1783
0.2
595
0.0
324
0.3
585
0.2
191
0.0
12
1 1783
1.1
595
0.7
324
0.6
585
0.5
191
1.0
13
1783
3.6
595
2.4
324
1.9
585 :
1.0
191
1.0
14
1783
7.0
595
4.0
324
3.7
583
3.4
191
4.2
15
1783
11.2
595
5.9
324
6.5
582 '
7.6
186
7.5
16
1782
17.3
595
11.9
324
11.4
574
18.5
177
14.7
17
1781
25.4
592
18.1
324
19.1
556
30.0
155
22.6
18
1755
32.8
570
25.8
306
27.8
536
42.2
144
36.1
19
1638
40.3
545
34.9
282
35.5
514
47.3
129
39.5
20
1452
46.7
517
39.7
251
42.2
493
50.9
116
49.1
21
1243
50.4
461
46.9
210
47.1
475
54.9
110
52.7
22
985
54.7
388
51.0
159
57.2
459
58.2
99
57.6
23
111
56.5
336
55.1
113
61.1
443
59.4
95
60.0
24
623
58.6
267
59.2
68
63.2
425
61.6
90
63.3
25
506
64.4
210 1
61.9
407
64.9
83
68.7
26
398
63.6
171
65.5
i 395
66.6
81
69.1
27
295
63.4
115
67.0
1 383
67.4
77
68.8
28
224
64.3
88
71.6
369
67.8
76
68.4
29
179
65.4
69
72.5
' 347
67.7
72
66.7
30
140
65.0
53
75.5
i 334
69.8
1 65
70.8
31
107
65.4
318
70.4
59
69.5
32
92
65.2
306
71.6
57
70.2
33
79
65.8
290
71.7
53
71.7
34
60
68.3
281
72.6
53
71.7
35
53
66.0
269
72.9
50
74.0
Table 19. Comparisons of data obtained by different interviewers, on pre-marital
intercourse and on intercourse with prostitutes
Total pre-marital intercourse includes the coitus had with companions and with
prostitutes. Total intercourse with prostitutes includes pre-marital, extra-marital, and
post-marital data.
140
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Data Obtained by Three Interviewers
Accumulative Incidence: Homosexual Outlets
Educ. Level 13-f-
AGE
HISTORIES TAKEN BY
KINSEY
HISTORIES TAKEN BY
POMEROY
HISTORIES TAKEN BY
MARTIN
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
1783
0.0
595
0.2
324
0.0
9
1783
0.1
595
0.2
324
0.0
10
1783
0.5
595
0.7
324
0.0
11
1783
1.9
595
2.4
324
0.9
12
1783
6.1
595
7.6
324
4.3
13
1783
11.5
595
12.9
324
9.6
14
1783
18.6
595
17.8
324
14.8
15
1783
21.6
595
21.3
324
18.2
16
1782
23.5
595
23.2
324
20.7
17
1781
24.8
594
24.1
324
21.6
18
1756
26.1
573
26.0
306
22.9
19
1642
27.3
548
27.4
283
23.7
20
1472
28.1
522
28.9
255
23.9
21
1273
28.4
472
30.7
216
26.4
22
1038
29.4
413 •
31.2
167
29.9
23
874
30.8
370
33.0
127
33.1
24
740
32.3
314
32.2
86
32.6
25
663
33.8
275
31.6
56
32.1
26
582
33.7
250
32.4
27
512
34.0
222
33.8
28
467
34.5
202
33.7
29
432
34.0
179
35.2
30
400
34.5
154
33.8
31
378
34.9
135
34.1
32
353
33.7
125
32.0
33
322
34.8
114
32.5
34
299
35.5
101
33.7
35
277
35.0
95
31.6
36
261
35.2
86
29.1
37
233
33.9
81
32.1
38
222
33.8
78
32.1
t
39
207
34.3
66
31.8
40
191
33.0
60
33.3
41
180
31.1
53
35.8
Table 20. Comparisons of data obtained by different interviewers, on total
homosexual outlets
Based on males of the college level. Includes pre-marital, extra-marital, and post-
marital experience in the homosexual.
data OBTAII^®D BY DIFFERENT
interviewers
"kE- MARITAL intercourse
£OUC LEVEL 13+
I FIG. 19 I
^5 20
30
• KINSEY
POMEROY ‘
iNmcooRse with PRosTirures
eooc LEVEL 0-0 -j ^
Fie. 20
20 25
AGE
homosexual outlets
EOOC LEVEL 13 +
X X K MARTIN
P mantal intercourse, intercourse with prostitutes, and homosexual outlets.
142
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Frequency Data Obtained in Successive Periods
GROUP
PERIOD
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Age 11-15
Total Outlet
1938-42
1113
2 92 =fc 0.07
2.46
96.1
3.04 =b 0.07
2.58
1943-46
644
3.05 0.14
2.11
93.9
3.24 =i= 0.15
2.30
Masturbation
1938-42
1113
2.25 ± 0.06
1.82
85.2
2.64 ± 0.07
2.18
1943-46
644
2.36 ± 0.12
1.46
77.8
3.03 ± 0.14
2.17
Nocturnal Emiss.
1938-42
1113
0.29 0.02
0.06
61.8
0.47 ± 0.03
0 25
1943-46
644
0.43 =fc 0.03
0.15
74.1
0.58 =b 0.04
0.31
Pre-mar. Coitus
1938-42
1113
0.11 ± 0.02
0.00
13.7
0.81 =±= 0.10
0.34
1943-46
644
0 09 =t: 0.03
0.00
6.8
1.27 ± 0.46
0.17
Homosexual
1938-42
1113
0.11 =1= 0.01
0.00
23.4
0.46 ± 0.06
0.10
1943-46
644
0.09 0.02
0.00
21.1
0.43 ^ 0.06
0.10
Age 16-20
Total Outlet
1938-42
1146
2.64 0.06
2.14
99.7
2.65 =fc 0 06
2.15
1943-46
662
3.05 =fc 0.12
2.30
99.7
3 06 0.12
2.31
Masturbation
1938-42
1146
1.59 0.05
1.12
89.4
1.77 ± 0.05
1.38
1943-46
662
2.11 =•= 0.10
1.33
88.1
2.40 =i= 0.11
1.66
Nocturnal Emiss.
1938-42
1146
0 41 ± 0.02
0.22
91.3
0.45 =fc 0.02
0 26
1943-46
662
0.47 =fc 0.03
0.27
91.2
0.51 =fc 0.03
0.31
Pre-mar. Coitus
1938-42
1146
0.31 =«= 0.03
0.00
41.9
0.74 =fc 0.06
0.28
1943-46
662
0.26 =•= 0.04!
0.00
37.3
0.70 =fc 0.11
0.19
Homosexual
1938-42
1146
0.08 0.01
0.00
17.8
0.47 =fc 0.07
0.09
1943-46
662
0.08 ± 0.02
0.00
14.8
0.50 =fc 0.09
0.09
Age 21-25
Total Outlet
1938-42
691
2.58 ± 0.08
1.99
99.9
2.58 =b 0.08
2.00
1943-46
533
2.64 ± 0.12
1.79
99.6
2.65 =b 0.13
1.80
Masturbation
1938-42
691
1.26 ± 0 05
0.74
86.3
1.46 =t= 0.06
0.91
1943-46
533
1.43 0.09
0.62
86.3
1.66 ± 0.10
0.87
Nocturnal Emiss.
1938-42
691
0.40 =b 0.03
0.19
86.1
0.46 =b 0.03
0.26
1943-46
533
0.39 i 0.03
0.23
87.1
0.45 0.03
0.29
Pre-mar. Coitus
1938-42
691
0.50 =fc 0.05
0.02
52.4
0.95 =fc 0.08
0.36
1943-46
533
0.49 ± 0.06
0.04
57.4
0.85 0.11
0.29
Homosexual
1938-42
691
0.10 =1= 0.02
0.00
10.6
0.95 0.17
0.28
1943-46
533
0.11 0.03
0.00
10.7
1.05 ± 0.22
0.34
Table 21. Comparisons of data obtained in two successive four-year periods
Comparing results obtained by the same interviewer (Kinsey) in the earlier half and in
the later half of the study. All data from groups of college level (“educational level 13+”).
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
143
the frequency data on all of the other items and the incidence data even
on masturbation and pre-marital intercourse are very closely duplicated
by the two interviewers. On the item which is most difficult to uncover,
namely, the homosexual, the two interviewers secured almost exactly the
same results. The differences in their findings on masturbation and pre-
marital intercourse may be due to some selection of the subjects who have
contributed the histories, or to real differences in the populations with
which the two interviewers dealt; but this does not seem a sufficient expla-
nation. On this point, further investigation needs to be made.
5. The accumulative incidence curves (Chapter 3), derived from the
data gathered by the three interviewers (Tables 17-20, Figures 16-21),
provide a striking demonstration of the capacities of different investigators
to secure similar results, even on such intangible material as must be dealt
with in the study of human sex behavior. In most cases, the incidence data
obtained by the several interviewers are so nearly in accord that the curves
he precisely on top of each other. In those cases where there are differences,
the general loci of the data are still confirmed, although there may be some
question of the precise position of the fact between the two calculations, or
to one or the other side of the extreme calculations.
STABILITY OF TECHNIQUES
The question involved here concerns the capacity of an interviewer to
obtain uniform results over any long period of years. Is there a possibility
that one’s methods of recording change, particularly in regard to evalua-
tions of items that are not strictly measurable? Is there a possibihty that
changes have entered in the methods of calculating from the raw data,
since the first procedures were devised nine years ago? As a study of these
problems, comparisons are shown in Table 21 between the data obtained
by the senior author during the first four years of the research (1938-1942),
and the data obtained by the same interviewer in the last four years (1943-
1946). The two junior authors have not been involved in interviewing long
enough to make such comparisons possible. Table 21 includes calculations
on every group for which 300 or more cases were available from the inter-
viewing done by the senior author in each and both of the periods. Com-
parisons of the accumulative incidence curves for masturbation, nocturnal
emissions, pre-marital intercourse, and the homosexual in the two periods
are shown in Tables 22 and 23, and Figures 22-24.
A study of the data leads to the following conclusions:
1. The active incidence data are phenomenally close in the two succes-
sive four-year samples. They leave no doubt of the general locus of the
fact for every type of sexual behavior, and they even suggest that there can
be considerable precision in determining these facts.
a
144
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Accumulative Incidence Data Obtained in Successive
Periods
Single Males, Educ. Level 13+
age
masturbation
nocturnal emissions
histories taken
histories taken
histories taken
histories taken
1938-
-1942
1943-
-1946
1938-
-1942
1943-
-1946
Cases
% with
Cases
% With
Cases
% with
Cases
%Wlth
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
8
1166
0.0
637
0.0
1163
0.0
636
0.0
9
1166
0.2
637
0.6
1163
0.0
636
0.0
10
1166
1.7
637
3.5
1163
0.4
636
0.5
11
1166
6.9
637
9.1
1163
2.1
636
3.1
12
1166
26.5
637
25.3
1163
8.6
636
12.7
13
1166
54.0
637
49.1
1163
21.5
636
33.5
14
1166
74.3
637
68.6
1163
44.5
636
56.1
15
1166
81.6
637
75.7
1163
62.8
636
71.7
16
1166
84.8
637
81.6
1163
75.7
636
83.0
17
1165
87.6
637
84.9
1162
85.2
636
88.5
18
1147
89.7
629
87.0
1144
90.4
628
91.4
19
1047
91.2
612
88.1
1044
92.4
611
93.1
20
878
91.1
594
89.9
875
93.6
593
94.1
21
705
92.1
558
91.0
702
94.6
557
94.6
22
502
92.6
503
91.8
501
94.8
502
94.8
23
351
91.5
i 445
92.8
351
94.3
444
94.8
24
256
91.8
385
92.5
256
95.7
384
95.6
25
199
93.0
320
92.2
199
95.0
319
96.2
26
154
93.5
256
92.6
154
95.5
255
96.9
27
102
94.1
204
93.1
102
95.1
203
96.6
28
> 68
94.1
163
92.6
68
95.6
162
95.7
29
51
92.2
134
94.0
51
96.1
133
95.5
30
107
95.3
106
96.2
31
82
93.9
82
95.1
32
72
94.4
72
94.4
33
61
93.4
61
95.1
Table 22. Comparisons of data obtained at two different periods, on masturbation
and nocturnal emissions
Accumulative incidence data based on the pre-marital histories of males of the
college level, taken by one interviewer (Kinsey) in two successive four-year periods.
A^E
Figures 22-24. Comparing accumulative incidence data obtained by one inter-
viewer in successive four-year periods
Data on nocturnal emissions, pre-marital intercourse, masturbation, and homosexual
contacts. All calculations based on males of college level (13-1-).
145
146
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Comparisons of Accumulative Incidence Data Obtained in Successive
Periods
Single Males, Educ. Level 13+
age
TOTAL
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
PRE-MARITAL HOMOSEXUAL
OUTLETS
histories taken
HISTORIES TAKEN
HISTORIES TAKEN
HISTORIES TAKEN
1938-1942
1943-
-1946
1938-
-1942
1943-
-1946
Cases
% with
Cases
%with
Cases
% with
Cases
% with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
]^per.
8
1167
0.0
637
0.0
1163
0.0
637
0.0
9
1167
0.0
637
0.0
1163
0.0
637
0.2
10
1167
0.0
637
0.0
1163
0.2
637
1.1
11
1167
0.3
637
0.0
1163
1.5
637
2.2
12
1167
1.5
637
0.2
1163
5.9
637
5.7
13
1167
4.5
637
1.7
1163
12.0
637
10.2
14
1167
7.1
637
3.5
1163
19.3
637
17.1
15
1167
13.4
637
6.8
1163
22.2
637
20.7
16
1167
19.6
637
12.7 r
1163
24.6
637
21.5
17
1166
28.6
637
19.2
1162
25.6
637
23.1
18
1148
36.7
629
25.4
1144
27.0
629 ;
24.6
19
1048
44.9
612
32.5
1044
28.3
612
25.5
20
879
51.4
594
39.6
875
29.3
594
25.8
21
706
55.0
558
44.4
702
29.6
558
26.7
22
503
59.4
503
49.9
501
30.7
503
28.2
23
351
59.3
445
54.4
351
32.8
445
29.2
24
256
60.9 i
385
56.9
256
35.2
385
29.9
25
199
64.3
320
63.4
199
40.7
320
31.3
26
154
64.3
256
62.5
154
42.2
256
33.2
27
102
64.7
204
62.3
102
40.2
204
33.8
28
68
66.2
163
62.6
68
47.1
163
38.0
29
51
66.7
134
64.9
51
45.1
134
38.8
30
107
66.4
107
42.1
31
82
68.3
82
46.3
32
72
66.7
72
47.2
33
61
67.2
61
45.9
Table 23. Comparisons of data obtained at two different periods
Accumulative incidence data based on histories of males of the college level, taken
by one interviewer (Kinsey) in two successive four-year periods. Total pre-marital
intercourse includes relations with companions and with prostitutes.
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
147
2. The accumulative incidence data are so nearly identical for the two
different periods that it is highly improbable that two groups obtained in
the same period would ever compare more closely. There is practically
identity in regard to masturbation, nocturnal emissions, and the homo-
sexual. The curves for pre-marital intercourse are about a year and a half
apart during most of their rise, but reach nearly identical levels.
3. The conformance of frequency data, in the successive four-year
samples, is quite close. In general, the medians are closer than the means.
Since the values of means are affected by a few high-rating individuals, as
the values of medians are not, this greater constancy of the medians
indicates that the frequencies of persons with unusually high rates of outlet
vary in successive samples, while the frequencies of the individuals in the
mass of the population do not vary so much. This is obviously due to the
fact that there are fewer extreme individuals and that they are not picked
up in any process of sampling as regularly as the more average persons in
the population. Only large samples can smooth out the effects of high-
rating cases,
4. Some of the differences that do exist between the successive four-year
samples may be the product of instabihty in the techniques of recording
and calculating data, but it is just as likely that they are due to actual differ-
ences in the samples which have been involved. The comparisons in Table
21 have been made for populations resulting from a five-way breakdown
(sex, race, marital status, age, and educational level), but there are many
other factors that can modify the picture for particular groups.
5. The differences in calculations on successive four-year periods are not
consistently higher nor lower. This means that no consistent bias has
entered into the processes of the study.
6. There was, inevitably, some experimentation and some trial and
error in developing the techniques of interviewing and in the manipulation
of the data in the early years of the research. However, the errors that may
have entered in this way do not appear to have been so large that the earlier
histories need be eliminated from calculations which are based on the
total body of histories. Throughout the present volume the data from the
two four-year periods have, of course, been combined in all of the calcula-
tions, and the consequent statistics may (or may not) be nearer the realities
of behavior than either of the sets of calculations shown in Table 21.
7. The comparisons in Tables 21-23 seem to indicate that methods of
securing subjects, proficiency in interviewing, skill in using the code in
which the data are recorded, and calculations and judgments which the
data undergo in their statistical treatment, can be maintained at such uni-
form levels as many persons would have considered impossible in a case
history study which is hable to error from so many sources, and which
deals with as taboo a subject as sex.
148
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
IMMEDIATE VERSUS REMOTE RECALL
Any consideration of the validity of case history data involves the ques-
tion of the relative accuracy of immediate memory versus remote recall.
Does the subject, in an interview, give a more accurate record of his more
recent or of his more remote activities? Since the subjects were of various
ages when they contributed their histories, the data shown for any partic-
ular age period have been obtained partly from the more immediate recall
of younger persons, and partly from the more remote — sometimes the
quite remote — memory of older persons. Can data obtained by such differ-
ent processes fairly be added together?
It has not been possible to undertake any study which would go into all
of the complexities of this situation, although we have some measurements
toward such a study. In the course of the interviewing, we have acquired
certain impressions that may be worth recording in anticipation of the
time when there will be enough material to make more precise determina-
tions. These impressions cover the following points:
1. More recent events seem, in general, to be recalled more easily, and
more remote events are recalled with greater difficulty. This seems reason-
able enough, but it proves nothing concerning the validity of the recall. It
seems reasonable to believe that more immediate and more easily recalled
events would be reported with greater accuracy, but there are at least
certain circumstances where that is clearly not so.
2. Pre-adolescent children, as young as three or four years of age, are
ordinarily capable enough of recalling very immediate events, but often
fail to recall activities and knowledge acquired only a few months or a year
or two before. How much of this forgetting is a simple lapse of memory,
and how much is psychologic blockage, is not readily determined. The
psychoanalysts are undoubtedly correct in seeing considerable significance
in the sometimes deliberate but more often unconscious repressions that
develop in these early years, but they do not sufficiently allow for the simple
failures of memory which seem sufficient explanation of some of the inade-
quacies of recall among younger subjects. There is no doubt that the ana-
lysts are correct in believing that more of this early experience is lost to
memory than of the experience of any other segment of the life cycle.
3. Older persons seem to recall remote events, in many cases in minute
detail, while forgetting what happened in recent weeks. This is rather
generally accepted, and our own experience seems to confirm this. There
are some psychologic studies that show the poor quality of the immediate
recall of the aged (Thorndike 1928, Gilbert 1941), but apparently no pre-
cise studies on the validity of their remote recall.
4. While the quality of memory may show some degree of correlation
with intelligence and with the extent of the individual’s formal education,
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
149
there appears to be considerable accuracy of memory among some less
intelligent and many poorly educated persons. Illiterate persons may
remember such an amazing amount of detail about dates, names, and
places, as is rarely found among educated persons whose minds are con-
tinually preoccupied with what they read in newspapers, magazines, and
books. We still need precise measures of the accuracy of memory among
these lower levels, but the data secured on the histories from such persons
show consistencies in the chronology that are often remarkable. On the
other hand, some professionally trained persons, for some reason still to
be analyzed, may be much confused in attempting to construct a chronol-
ogy of their own activities, and the most extreme and absurd disparities
secured on any of our re-takes have come from graduate students and
university instructors who had especial interest in the research and were
doing their best to cooperate.
5. As usual, incidence figures are more accurate than frequency data.
Estimates of average frequencies are especially difficult for children, for
individuals of low mentality, and for most poorly educated individuals.
Frequencies are more difficult to estimate when they concern remote
periods of time.
6. The possibly greater accuracy of recent memory is at least partially
offset by the greater extent of cover-up on recent events. Legal statutes of
limitation are in line with the general human tendency to forgive something
that is more remote, while reacting violently to more recent happenings.
Consequently many subjects in a case history study will admit participation
in the more taboo sexual activities at some time in the past, while insisting
that such activities are no part of their current histories, or that the fre-
quencies are now very much reduced. An undue number of persons have
discontinued masturbation, pre-marital coitus, extra-marital coitus, mouth-
genital contacts, homosexual activities, prostitution, or animal intercourse
the year before they contributed their Mstories — or a few months or even
weeks before! Re-takes have subsequently shown that the year of the first
history was in actuality involved, although the activities are again supposed
to have terminated before the date of the re-take.
7. Certain items are minimized, certain items played up, depending upon
the immediate mental state of the subject. Re-takes, especially series of
re-takes on the same person, and histories which can be compared with
the precise records of a diary, show that these reactions fluctuate, rather
than erring always in the same direction. For instance, the pre-marital
heterosexual experiences which were reported on the first history may be
minimized on the re-takes, while the report of the homosexual experience
may be extended. A second re-take on the same individual may play up
the heterosexual and minimize the homosexual experience, especially if
the subject is now in the army and conscious of official attitudes on that
150
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
subject. Six months after being released from the army, the homosexual
record may again be obtained in something like the form which was
reported on the earlier histories.
The generalization to be drawn from these several impressions is that the
memory of more recent events may be more accurate (except in the aged),
but its accuracy is more or less offset by a considerable amount of cover-up
on more immediate activities. What is the final effect on the quality of the
individual record, and on the averages calculated for whole groups of
individuals? The quality of the individual record is the clinician’s constant
problem, but one on which we, unfortunately, can contribute nothing more
at this time. That the individual record is not wholly specious, the data
elsewhere in this chapter, especially the data on re-takes, definitely show.
We shall hope to make still further studies on this point as soon as we
have the large series of histories which such a study will demand.
OLDER VERSUS YOUNGER GENERATIONS
As a further comparison of more immediate versus remote recall, the
data in Chapter 1 1 bear on this point. The tables and charts in that chapter
compare the younger half with the older half of the population which has
entered into this study. The younger half is, of course, reporting more
immediate experience. The older half, averaging about 22 years older than
the first group, is recalling its early years from a distance which is that much
more remote. While these data were originally calculated to study possible
changes in behavior in successive generations, they also provide one more
test of memory of recent versus more remote events. An examination of
Chapter 11 will show that the incidence data for the two groups are, in
most cases, almost precise duplicates. The frequency data are further apart
in some groups but, again, precise duplicates in other groups. The factors
involved in these diverse results are discussed in Chapter 11.
CONCLUSIONS
Throughout the whole period of this study, a variety of techniques has
been employed to test the effectiveness of the methods of interviewing, the
validity of the data which are obtained in an interview, and the appro-
priateness of the statistical techniques by which the data have been manipu-
lated. It is unfortunate that these studies of method are not yet complete
and, indeed, that they could not have been completed before the central
problems of the research were laid out and their study initiated. But such
investigations of method often demand more material than is needed to
solve the problems which are central to the main study. In order to deter-
mine the necessary size of sample, for instance, it has been necessary to
study some samples that were larger than those that have ultimately proved
adequate. In order to compare results obtained by different interviewers, it
VALIDITY OF THE DATA 151
is necessary that each interviewer have secured a sample as large as may be
needed in the combined sample from all the interviewers.
Moreover, finished studies of method have to be made with populations
which are homogeneous for at least the major items on the twelve-way
breakdown used in this study ; and the methodological investigations which
are reported here in Chapters 3 and 4 are still restricted to a certain few
segments of the population, chiefly to the college groups, because we do
not yet have enough histories from other groups to make studies there. It
will be highly important to secure some measure of the differences in
validity of the data obtained from persons of different ages, of different
educational and social levels, of different mental capacity, and different in
still other respects. To that end, we shall continue this study of method as
this research progresses.
The materials now in hand seem to justify the following conclusions
concerning the validity of data obtained through personal interviewing
in a case history study:
1. The accuracy varies considerably with different individuals. The
inaccuracies are the product of simple forgetting, the deliberate or uncon-
scious suppression of memory, and deliberate cover-up. Definite allowances
must be made for such errors on individual histories obtained in the con-
centrated, relatively short interviews which have been used in the present
investigation. Careful studies of J:he effectiveness of other types of inter-
viewing — for instance, of the effectiveness of the psychoanalytic technique,
with its two hundred or more hours spent on each individual — have never
been made; and it is as yet impossible to make comparisons of the relative
effectiveness of the methods used in the present study and in these other
types of interviewing. It is not sufficient to depend upon the optimistic
claims of each cUnician for his own technique; and we hope, in time, to
make joint studies with some other groups that will throw more light on
these problems of interviewing.
2. In the present study, the validity of the individual histories varies
with particular items and for different segments of the population. On the
whole, the accuracy of the individual history is far greater than might have
been expected, with correlation coefficients ranging above 0.7 in most
cases, and percents of identical responses ranging between 75 and 99 on
particular items. There are some low correlations which are highly signifi-
cant because they give some insight into the factors which are responsible
for errors and falsifications in reporting.
3. It is unfortunate that there is, as yet, insufficient experience to allow
us to identify, in more than a part of the cases, those individuals who are
least accurate in their reporting. The clinician needs this information, for
he is most often concerned with the validity of the individual history, and
152
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
less often with the vahdity of the data from any group of individuals. But
further studies will need to be made before we are able to say how one can
identify those particular individuals who are more accurate, and those who
are less accurate as reporters of the events that have occurred in their lives.
4. The accuracy of the averages calculated for whole groups of individ-
uals is definitely higher than the accuracy of the individual histories, as
statisticians will readily understand. Where there is no bias which accumu-
lates errors in a particular direction, errors on one side will compensate
for errors on the other side and the averages come nearer the fact, as the
various tests in this chapter indicate.
5. For all types of sexual activity, in all segments of the population, the
incidence data are more accurate than the frequency data. The incidence
data are the most accurate of all. The actualities must lie within 1 to 10 per
cent, plus or minus, of the published incidence figures, and within 1 to 5
per ceni of most of them. In regard to nearly all types of sexual activity
there has undoubtedly been some cover-up, and the actual incidences are
probably higher than the published figures. This applies especially to
masturbation at lower social levels, to pre-marital and extra-marital inter-
course at upper levels, and to the homosexual and animal intercourse at
all levels. There is httle likelihood that the calculated figures on any of these
items are too high. There are abundant social reasons why an individual
should deny or minimize the frequency of any activity which is taboo and,
in the last analysis, all sexual activities except marital intercourse may, in
some social groups, fall under that head.
6. Data concerning such individual and social statistics as age, educa-
tion, events concerned with marriage, parents, siblings, etc., are the next
most accurate. The averages for whole groups are so close to the averages
obtained by direct observation that they may be accepted as precise state-
ments of fact, although they are not so dependable on individual histories.
7. The frequency data are much less accurate than the incidence data.
On individual histories they may be removed by as much as 50 per cent
from the reality. Nevertheless, mean frequencies and median frequencies
calculated for whole groups will not need more than a 5 to 10 per cent
allowance, plus or minus. Since differences in frequencies of sexual
behavior in different segments of the population may amount to some-
thing between 100 and 800 per cent, the comparisons will not be materially
affected by the necessary corrections. The statements made concerning
mean and median frequencies for whole groups are much more accurate
than the best trained individual could be in reporting his own individual
frequencies.
8. The least accurate data are those that concern an individual’s first
knowledge of an event. This is true of the individual histories, but the
VALIDITY OF THE DATA
153
averages calculated for whole groups are still reliable. The inaccuracies
on these points are obviously dependent upon the indefinite nature of the
educational processes by which one finally becomes conscious of the fact
that he has definite knowledge on some subject. On individual histories an
allowance of 2,5 years, plus or minus, should be made on the reported
data. The means calculated for whole groups will not need more than a 4
or 5 per cent correction, plus or minus, on these items.
9. Again it should be emphasized that most of these calculations of
validity have been based on the college segment of the population, which
is the only group represented now by large enough series to warrant such
examination. Comparable studies are needed to determine the validity of
the data obtained from other segments of the population, and we plan to
undertake such studies as soon as sufficient re-takes, pairs of spouses,
series from different interviewers, etc., are available. Preliminary examina-
tions of data from lower social levels suggest that variations in the quality
of such reports are wider than the variations among college males. Con-
sequently quite large series will be needed before it will be possible to make
satisfactory validity studies on the more poorly educated groups.
Throughout the remainder of this volume, the raw data and the calcula-
tions based on the raw data are treated with a precision that must not be
misunderstood by the statistically inexperienced reader. It has not been
practical to carry this warning in Svery paragraph of every chapter. Neither
has it been possible to qualify every individual statistic, as every statistic
in any study of the human animal should be quahfied. For the remainder
of the volume it should, therefore, be recognized that the data are probably
fair approximations, but only approximations of the fact.
Part II
FACTORS AFFECTING SEXUAL OUTLET
CHAPTER 5.
CHAPTER 6.
CHAPTER 7.
CHAPTER 8.
CHAPTER 9.
CHAPTER 10.
CHAPTER 11.
CHAPTER 12.
CHAPTER 13.
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
RLnEIAL-URBAN BACKGROUND, AND SEXUAL OUTLET
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
Chapter 5
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
The present volume is concerned, for the most part, with the record of
the frequency and sources of sexual outlet in the biologically mature male,
i.e.^ in the adolescent and older male. This chapter, however, will discuss
the nature of sexual response, and will show something of the origins of
adult behavior in the activities of the younger, pre-adolescent boy.
The sexual activity of an individual may involve a variety of experiences,
a portion of which may culminate in the event which is known as orgasm
or sexual climax. There are six chief sources of sexual climax. There is
self stimulation (masturbation), nocturnal dreaming to the point of climax,
heterosexual petting to climax (without intercourse), true heterosexual
intercourse, homosexual intercourse, and contact with animals of other
species. There are still other possible sources of orgasm, but they are rare
and never constitute a significant fraction of the outlet for any large seg-
ment of the population.
EROTIC AROUSAL AND ORGASM
Sexual contacts in the adolescent or adult male almost always involve
physiologic disturbance which is recognizable as “erotic arousal.” This
is also true of much pre-adolescent activity, although some of the sex play
of younger children seems to be devoid of erotic content. Pre-adolescent
sexual stimulation is much more common among younger boys than it is
among younger girls. Many younger females and, for that matter, a cer-
tain portion of the older and married female population, may engage in
such specifically sexual activities as petting and even intercourse without
discernible erotic reaction.
Erotic arousal is a material phenomenon which involves an extended
series of physical, physiologic, and psychologic changes. Many of these
could be subjected to precise instrumental measurement if objectivity
among scientists and public respect for scientific research allowed such
laboratory investigation. In the higher mammals, including the human,
tactile stimulation is the chief mechanical source of arousal; but the higher
mammal, especially the human, soon becomes so conditioned by his
experience, or by the vicariously shared experiences of others, that psy-
chologic stimulation becomes the major source of arousal for many an
older person, especially if he is educated and his mental capacities are well
157
158
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
trained. There is an occasional individual who comes to climax through
psychologic stimulation alone.
Erotic stimulation, whatever its source, effects a series of physiologic
changes which, as far as we yet know, appear to involve adrenal secretion,
typically autonomic reactions, increased pulse rate, increased blood pres-
sure, an increase in peripheral circulation and a consequent rise in the
surface temperature of the body; a flow of blood into such distensible
organs as the eyes, the lips, the lobes of the ears, the nipples of the breast,
the penis of the male, and the clitoris, the genital labia and the vaginal
walls of the female; a partial but often considerable loss of perceptive
capacity (sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell) ; an increase in so-called nerv-
ous tension, some degree of rigidity of some part or of the whole of the
body at the moment of maximum tension; and then a sudden release which
produces local spasms or more extensive or all-consuming convulsions.
The moment of sudden release is the point commonly recognized among
biologists as orgasm.
The person involved in a sexual situation may be more or less conscious
of some of the physiologic changes which occur although, unless he is
scientifically trained, much of what is happening escapes his comprehen-
sion. Self observation may be especially inadequate because of tlie con-
siderable (and usually unrecognized) loss of sensory capacities during
maximum arousal. The subject’s awareness of the situation is summed up
in his statement that he is “emotionally aroused”; but the material sources
of the emotional disturbances are rarely recognized, either by laymen or
by scientists, both of whom are inclined to think in terms of passion, a
sexual impulse, a natural drive, or a libido which partakes of the mystic
more than it does of solid anatomy and physiologic function.
The most important consequence of sexual orgasm is the abrupt release
of the extreme tension which preceded the event and the rather sudden
return to a normal or subnormal physiologic state after the event. In the
mature male, ejaculation of the liquid secretions of the prostate and
seminal vesicles, through the urethra of the penis, is a usual consequence
of the convulsions produced by orgasm in those particular organs; and
such ejaculation usually provides the most ready proof that the individual
has passed through chmax. But orgasm may occur without the emission
of semen. This latter situation is, of course, the rule when orgasm
occurs among pre-adolescent males and among females. It also occurs
among a few adult males (11 out of 4,102 adult males in our histories)
who either are afflicted with ejaculatory impotence (6 cases : 2 operative, 2
hormonal, 1 after severe illness, 1 in an apparently normal individual), or
who deliberately constrict their genital muscles (5 cases) in the contra-
ceptive technique which is known as coitus reservatus. These males experi-
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY 159
ence real orgasm, which they have no difficulty in recognizing, even if it is
without ejaculation.
Among pre-adolescent boys, however, and among younger females,
orgasm is not so readily recognized, partly because of the lack of an ejacu-
late, and partly because the inexperienced individual is without a back-
ground from which to judge the event. In the younger boy there is no
ejaculate because the prostate and seminal vesicles are not yet functionally
developed, and in the female those glands are rudimentary and never
develop. Nevertheless, erotic arousal and orgasm where it occurs among
younger boys and among females appears to involve the same sequence of
physiologic events that has been described for the older, ejaculating males;
and many of the younger boys and most of the older females who have
contributed to the present study have been able to supply apparently
reliable records of such experience.
While climax is thus clearly possible without ejaculation, it is doubtful
if ejaculation can ordinarily occur without a preceding climax. There are
some (the implication is in Reich 1942; also in Wolfe 1942) who consider
that this latter situation does occur, and not infrequently, among some males.
Subjects are quoted who have had erections and who have ejaculated
under conditions which they insist brought them no satisfaction. But in
our histories there are many subjects who make similar statements. There
are husbands who report unsatisfactory intercourse with unresponsive
wives; there are other males who so characterize their intercourse with
prostitutes ; and there are males who insist that they are “not at all aroused”
in the stray homosexual relations which they have. Most of these individ-
uals do, however, erect and ejaculate in such situations; and these reports
probably amount to little more than records of varying degrees of physio-
logic disturbance during arousal and orgasm; or they are merely evidence
of minimal psychic components with good enough physical responses, or,
sometimes, of good enough psychic reactions that are inhibited, disguised,
or rationahzed in order to evade moral responsibility for socially taboo
behavior. To repeat: the biologist thinks of ejaculation as the product of
the convulsions which result from the physiologic event commonly known
as orgasm; and, except under laboratory experimental conditions (as in
the direct, electrical stimulation of erectile centers in the spinal cord) it is
difficult to understand what mechanisms could produce ejaculation without
a precedent orgasm. The confusion in the literature seems to be the result
of making the term orgasm and orgastic pleasure synonymous. It is, of
course, quite possible to recognize many degrees of physiologic change,
and many degrees of satisfaction among sexual experiences, and there are
admittedly occasions when there is little pleasure accompanying an ejacu-
lation. But we have no statistics on the frequencies of physiologic differ-
ences, or of the various degrees of satisfaction, and, in the present study, all
160
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
cases of ejaculation have been taken as evidence of orgasm, without regard
to the different levels at which the orgasms have occurred.
Behavior during orgasm varies considerably with different individuals
just as all other aspects of sexual behavior differ in any population (Chap-
ter 6). The descriptions of orgasm in clinical texts, marriage manuals, and
other literature are, however, remarkably uniform, partly because of each
author’s limited experience, and chiefly because of his failure to search for
variation in securing data from clinical subjects. In consequence, there has
been little comprehension of the complexity of the problem involved in
advising different persons about their sexual adjustments, and about
sexual techniques in marriage. There is great variety among adult males ;
and, it is interesting to note, there is as great variety and the same sort of
variety among pre-adolescent boys. One of our subjects, who has had con-
tacts with certain males over long periods of years (as many as sixteen
years in some cases), from their early pre-adolescence into their late teens
and twenties, states that the particular type of orgasm experienced by a
younger boy remains as his particular type into his adult years. The varia-
tion in pattern of orgastic response thus seems to depend, at least to some
degree (and in the limited number of cases so far studied), on inherent
differences in the biologic constitution of different individuals.
Our several thousand histories have included considerable detail on the
nature of orgasm; and these data, togetlj^er with the records supplied by
some older subjects who have had sexual contacts with younger boys,
provide material for describing the different sorts of reactions which may
occur. In the pre-adolescent, orgasm is, of course, without ejaculation of
semen. In the descriptions which follow, the data supplied by adult
observers for 196 pre-adolescent boys are the sources of the percentage
figures indicating the frequency of each type of orgasm among such young
males. While six types are listed, it should be understood that all gradations
occur between the situations which are herewith described.
1. Reactions primarily genital: Little 'or no evidence of body tension;
orgasm reached suddenly with little or no build-up ; penis becomes more
rigid and may be involved in mild throbs, or throbs may be limited to
urethra alone; semen (in the adult) seeps from urethra without forcible
ejaculation; climax passes with minor after-effects. A fifth (22%) of the
pre-adolescent cases on which there are sufficient data belong here, and
probably an even higher proportion of older males.
2. Some body tension: Usually involving a tension or twitching of one
or both legs, of the mouth, of the arms, or of other particular parts of the
body. A gradual build-up to a climax which involves rigidity of the whole
body and some throbbing of the penis; orgasm with a few spasms but little
after-effect. This is the most common type of orgasm, involving nearly
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
161
half (45%) of the pre-adolescent males, and perhaps a corresponding
number of adult males.
3. Extreme tension with violent convulsion: Often involving the sud-
den heaving and jerking of the whole body. Descriptions supplied by
several subjects indicate that the legs often become rigid, with muscles
knotted and toes pointed, muscles of abdomen contracted and hard,
shoulders and lieck stiff and often bent forward, breath held or gasping,
eyes staring or tightly closed, hands grasping, mouth distorted, sometimes
with tongue protruding; whole body or parts of it spasmodically twitching,
sometimes synchronously with throbs or violent jerking of the penis. The
individual may have some, but little, control of these involuntary reactions.
A gradual, and sometimes prolonged, build-up to orgasm, which involves
still more violent convulsions of the whole body; heavy breathing, groan-
ing, sobbing, or more violent cries, sometimes with an abundance of tears
(especially among younger children), the orgasm or ejaculation often
extended, in some individuals involving several minutes (in one case up to
five minutes) of recurrent spasm. After-effects not necessarily more marked
than with other types of orgasm, and the individual is often capable of
participating in a second or further experience. About one sixth (17%) of
the pre-adolescent boys, a smaller percentage of adult males.
4. As in either type 1 or 2; but with hysterical laughing, talking,
sadistic or masochistic reactioi^, rapid motions (whether in masturbation
or in intercourse), culminating in more or less frenzied movements which
are continued through the orgasm. A small percentage (5%) of either pre-
adolescent or adult males.
5. As in any of the above; but culminating in extreme trembling,
collapse, loss of color, and sometimes fainting of subject. Sometimes
happens only in the boy’s first experience, occasionally occurs throughout
the life of an individual. Regular in only a few (3%) of the pre-adolescent
or adult males. Such complete collapse is more common and better known
among females.
6. Pained or frightened at approach of orgasm. The genitalia of many
adult males become hypersensitive immediately at and after orgasm, and
some males suffer excruciating pain and may scream if movement is con-
tinued or the penis even touched. The males in the present group become
similarly hypersensitive before the arrival of actual orgasm, will fight away
from the partner and may make violent attempts to avoid climax, although
they derive definite pleasure from the situation. Such individuals quickly
return to complete the experience, or to have a second experience if the
first was complete. About 8 per cent of the younger boys are involved here,
but it is a smaller percentage of older boys and adults which continues
these reactions throughout life.
162
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Ages Involved, Pre-adolescent Sex Play
AGE
TOTAL
POPULATION, U.
S. CORRECTION
EDUC. LEVEL 0-8
Cases
Any
Sex
Play
%
Het-
ero-
sexual
%
Co-
itus
%
Homo-
sex-
ual
0/
/o
Cases
Any
Sex
Play
%
[
Het-
ero-
sexual
/o
Co-
itus
7o
Homo-
sex-
ual
y
/o
5
4321
9.8
6.5
2.6
5.7
822
7.9
4.7
2.8
5.7
6
4321
15.6
10.1
4.4
10.0
821
13.4
7.8
4.8
10.4
7
4320
20.0
13.2
6.7
13.5
819
17.6
11.2
7.4
14.0
8
4316
26.9
17.0
8.7
18.4
820
25.7
16.0
10.9
20.1
9
4302
28.5
16.7
8.7
21.4
817
28.4
17.0
11.5
22.9
10
4216
36.6
20.8
11.2
27.5
812
36.3
21.4
15.0
28.6
11
3933
37.4
22.0
12.3
27.9
784
36.7
21.7
15.2
29.0
12
2975
38.8
22.7
12.8
29.4
677
37.4
21.9
14.9
29.8
13
1610
35.0
20.2
12.9
26.5
491
33.4
18.1
13.2
26.7
14
424
33.6
17.8
9.3
27.6
181
36.5
16.6
11.6
29.8
15
112
24.1
16.0
5.0
19.9
40
17.5
7.5
5.0
15.0
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
r
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
AGE
Any
Het-
Co-
Homo-
Any
Het-
Co-
Homo-
Cases
Sex
Play
0/
/o 1
ero-
sexual
%
itus
%
sex-
ual
/o
Cases
Sex
Play
%
ero-
sexual
y
/o
itus
%
sex-
ual
%
5
637
9.7
6.6
2.8
5.2
2862
14.0
10.2
1.5
7.3
6
637
16.5
11.0
4.6
9.9
2863
16.5
11.3
2.4
9.8
7
638
21.8
14.7
7.4
13.6
2863
18.5
11.7
2.8
11.8
8
637
28.1
18.2
8.8
17.7
2859
24.8
14.8
3.5
17.1
9
634
29.5
17.4
8.4
21.3
2851
24.6
13.2
3.5
18.2
10
623
38.2
21.8
10.9
27.8
2781
31.4
15.7
4.2
24.2
11
593
39.6
24.5
13.0
28.2
2556
30.2
13.3
3.7
24.5
12
467
41.5
25.9
14.1
30.0
1831
31.4
12.3
3.2
26.3
13
270
38.5
24.1
15.2
27.8
849
25.3
10.0
3.5
21.4
14
59
35.6
22.0
10.2
28.8
184
19.6
4.3
1.1
18.5
Table 24. Ages involved in pre-adolescent sex play
“Educ. level 0-8” are the males who never go beyond grade school. “9-12” are the
males who enter high school but never go beyond. *T3-f-” are the males who will
ultimately go to college.
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
163
PRE-ADOLESCENT SEX PLAY
It has been assumed that the development of sexual attitudes and the
first overt sexual activities occur in the early history of the infant, but there
have been few specific data available. Recently we have begun the accumu-
lation of information through conferences with quite young children and
with their parents ; and in addition we now have material obtained by some
of our subjects through the direct observation of infants and of older pre-
adolescents. These histories emphasize the early development of the atti-
tudes which largely determine the subsequent patterns of adult sexual
behavior; but this material must be analyzed in a later volume, after we
have accumulated a great many more specific data. For the time being we
can report only on the specifically genital play and overt socio-sexual
behavior which occurs before adolescence.
We are not in a position to discuss the developing child's more generalized
sensory responses which may be sexual, but which are not so specific as
genital activities are. Freud and the psychoanalysts contend that all tactile
stimulation and response are basically sexual, and there seems considerable
justification for this thesis, in view of the tactile origin of so much of the
mammalian stimulation. This, however, involves a considerable extension
of both the everyday and scientific meanings of the term sexual, and we are
not now concerned with recording every occasion on which a babe brings
two parts of its body into juxtaposition, every time it scratches its ear or its
genitalia, nor every occasion oif which it sucks its thumb. If all such acts
are to be interpreted as masturbatory, it is, of course, a simple matter to
conclude that masturbation and early sexual activity are universal phenom-
ena; but it is still to be shown that these elemental tactile experiences
have anything to do with the development of the sexual behavior of the
adult. There is now a fair list of significant and in many cases observational
studies of this “pre-genital” level of reaction among infants and young
children (Bell 1902, Blanton 1917, Hattendorf 1932, Isaacs 1933, Dudycha
1933, Halverson 1938, 1940, Campbell 1939, Conn 1939, 1940, Levy 1940.
See Sears 1943 for a summary).
Adult behavior is more obviously a product of the specifically genital
play which is found among children, and on which we can now provide a
statistical record. Our own interviews with children younger than five, and
observations made by parents and others who have been subjects in this
study, indicate that hugging and kissing are usual in the activity of the very
young child, and that self manipulation of genitalia, the exhibition of
genitalia, the exploration of the genitalia of other children, and some
manual and occasionally oral manipulation of the genitalia of other
children occur in the two- to five-year olds more frequently than older
persons ordinarily remember from their own histories. Much of this
earliest sex play appears to be purely exploratory, animated by curiosity.
164
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
and as devoid of erotic content as boxing, or wrestling, or other non-sexual
physical contacts among older persons. Nevertheless, at a very early age
the child learns that there are social values attached to these activities, and
his emotional excitation while engaged in such play must involve reactions
to the mysterious, to the forbidden, and to the socially dangerous perform-
ance, as often as it involves true erotic response (Sears 1943). Some of the
play in the younger boy occurs without erection, but some of it brings
erection and may culminate in true orgasm.
In pre-adolescent and early adolescent boys, erection and orgasm are
easily induced. They are more easily induced than in older males. Erection
may occur immediately after birth and, as many observant mothers (and
few scientists) know, it is practically a daily matter for all small boys, from
earliest infancy and up in age (Halverson 1940). Slight physical stimulation
of the genitalia, general body tensions, and generalized emotional situations
bring immediate erection, even when there is no specifically sexual situation
involved. The very generalized nature of the response becomes evident
when one accumulates a list of the apparently non-sexual stimuli which
bring erection. Ramsey (1943) has published such a list gathered from a
group of 291 younger boys which he had interviewed, and his histories
provide part of the data which we have used in the present volume. A
complete tabulation, based on the total sample now available on all cases,
is as follows :
NON-SEXUAL SOURCES OF EIK>TIC RESPONSE
AMONG PRE-ADOLESCENT AND YOUNGER ADOLESCENT BOYS
Chiefly Physical
Sitting in class
Airplane rides
Friction with clothing
A sudden change in environment
Taking a shower
Sitting in church
Punishment
Motion of car or bus
Accidents
A skidding car
Electric shock
Sitting in warm sand
Fast elevator rides
Urinating
Carnival rides, Ferris wheel
Boxing and wrestling
Fast sled riding
High dives
Fast bicycle riding
Riding horseback
Fast car driving
Swimming
Skiing
Chiefly Emotional
Being scared
Big fires
Fear of a house intruder
Setting a field afire
Near accidents
Hearing revolver shot
Being late to school
Anger
Reciting before a class
Watching exciting games
Asked to go front in class
Playing in exciting games
Tests at school
Marching soldiers
Seeing a policeman
War motion pictures
Cops chasing him
Other movies
Getting home late
Band music
Receiving grade card
Hearing “extra paper” called
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
165
Chiefly Emotional (Confd)
Harsh words Adventure stories
Fear of punishment National anthem
Being yelled at ^ Watching a stunting airplane
Being alone at night Finding money
Fear of a big boy Seeing name in print
Playing musical solo Detective stories
Losing balance on heights Running away from home
Looking over edge of building Entering an empty house
Falling from garage, etc. Nocturnal dreams of fighting, accidents,
Long flight of stairs wild animals, falling from high places,
giants, being chased, or frightened
Among these younger boys, it is difficult to say what is an erotic response
and what is a simple physical, or a generalized emotional situation.
Specifically sexual situations to which the younger boys respond before
adolescence include the following:
SEXUAL SOURCES OF EROTIC RESPONSE AMONG
212 PRE- ADOLESCENT BOYS
Seeing females
107
Physical contact with females
34
Thinking about females
104
Love stories in books
32
Sex jokes
104
Seeing genitalia of other males
29
Sex pictures
89
Burlesque shows
23
Pictures of females
76
Seeing animals in coitus
21
Females in moving pictures
55
Dancing with females
13
Seeing self nude in mirror
47
The above table is based on the histories of 212 boys who were pre-
adolescent at the time of interview. Since the questions were not systemat-
ically put in all the pre-adolescent cases, the figures represent frequencies
of answers in particular boys, and should not be taken as incidence figures
for the population as a whole.
The record suggests that the physiologic mechanism of any emotional
response (anger, fright, pain, etc.) may be the basic mechanism of sexual
response. Originally the pre-adolescent boy erects indiscriminately to the
whole array of emotional situations, whether they be sexual or non-sexual
in nature. By his late teens the male has been so conditioned that he rarely
responds to anything except a direct physical stimulation of genitalia, or
to psychic situations that are specifically sexual. In the still older male even
physical stimulation is rarely effective unless accompanied by such a
psychologic atmosphere. The picture is that of the psychosexual emerging
from a much more generalized and basic physiologic capacity which
becomes sexual, as an adult knows it, through experience and conditioning.
The most specific activities among younger boys involve genital exhibi-
tion and genital contacts with other children. Something more than a
half (57%) of the older boys and adults recall some sort of pre-adolescent
sex play. This figure is much higher than some other students have found
166
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Duration of Pre-adolescent Sex Play
NO. OF
YEARS
total population
1 u.s. correction
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13 +
IN-
VOLVED
%
Cumu-
lated
/o
%
Cumu-
lated
/o
7o
Cumu-
lated
%
%
Cumu-
lated
%
Any Sex Play
1
24.3
100.0
18.6
100.0
24.0
100.0
37.9
100.0
2
17.9
75.7
11.8
81.4
20.1
76.0
22.8
62.1
3
10.4
57.8
10.3
69.6
10.2
55.9
11.1
39.3
4
11.2
47.4
11.5
59.3
11.6
45.7
8.8
28.2
5
11.0
36.2
14.3
47,8
10.4
34.1
6.1
19.4
6
9.5
25.2
12.0
33.5
9.2
23.7
5.3
13.3
7
7.2
15.7
10.8
21.5
5.9
14.5
4.3
8.0
8 !
5.7
8.5
8.2 ’
10.7
5.2
8.6
2.3
3.7
9+
2.8
2.8
2.5
2.5
3.4
3.4
1.4
1.4
Cases
2749
426
404
1919
Mean
Median
3.72 years
2.82 years
4.32 years
3 . 83 years
3.63 years
2.60 years
2.76 years
1.53 years
Any Heterosexual Play
1
36.3
100.0
25.6
100.0
37.6
100.0
54.0
100.0
2
15.8
63.7
12.2
74.4
17.1
62.4
18.6
46.0
3
9.4
47.9
8.5
62.2
10.1
45.3
8.7
27.4
4
10.2
38.5
11.5
53.7
.►10.4
35.2
6.4
18.7
5
7.4
28.3
9.6
42.2
7.1
24.8
3.9
12.3
6
7.3
20.9
10.4
32.6
6.7
17.7
3.0
8.4
7
7.7
13.6
13.7
22.2
5.7
11.0
2.7
5.4
8
3.3 !
5.9
5.9
8.5
2.3
5.3
1.6
2.7
9+
2.6
2.6
2.6
2.6
3.0
3.0
1.1
1.1
Cases
1850
270
298
1282
Mean
3.23 years
4.00 years
3.06 years
2.22 years
Median
2.11 years
3.34 years
1.74 years
0.93 years
Heterosexual Coitus
1
39.2
100.0
32.7
100.0
38.3
100.0
56.3
100.0
2
13.6
60.8
9.0
67.3
15.6
61.7
15.7
43.7
3
10.2
47.2
6.0
58.3
13.0
46.1
8.8
28.0
4
10.2
37.0
15.1
52.3
8.5
33.1
6.0
19.2
5
7.1
26.8
9.6
37.2
6.5
24.6
4.1
13.2
6
7.4
19.7
7.0
27.6
8.4
18.1
4.7
9.1
7
9.2
12.3
14.6
20.6
7.8
9.7
2.8
4.4
8
1.6
3.1
3.5
6.0
0.6
1.9
1.3
1.6
9+
1,5
1.5
2.5
2.5
1.3
1.3
0.3
0.3
Cases
671
199
154
318
Mean
Median
3.09 years
2.07 years
3.72 years
3.17 years
2.97 years
1.77 years
2.19 years
0.89 years
{Table continued on next page)
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
167
Duration of Pre-adolescent Sex Play
NO. OF
1 TOTAL
POPULATION
1 EDUC. LEVEL
1 EDUC. LEVEL I
EDUC. LEVEL
YEARS
IN-
VOLVED
i
!
U.S. CORRECTION
0-8
9-12
13 +
%
Cumu-
lated
%
%
Cumu-
lated
%
7o
Cumu-
lated
%
%
Cumu-
lated
%
Homosexual Play
1
27.1
100.0
20.0
100.0
26.9
100.0
43.2
100.0
2
17.8
72.9
11.2
80.0
20.9
73.1
19.8
56.8
3
10.0
55.1
11.2
68.8
9.1
52.2
11.1
37.0
4
10.8
45.1
8.8
57.6
12.8
1 43.1
7.7
25.9
5
11.5
34.3
14.7
48.8
11.1
30.3
6.0
18.2
6
8.8
22.8
12.9
34.1
7.4
19.2
5.1
12.2
7
6.7
14.0
10.9 '
21.2
5.1
11.8
3.8
7.1
8
5.2
7.3
8.2
10.3
4.4
6.7
2.1
3.3
9+
2.1
2.1
2.1
2.1
2.3
2.3
1.2
1.2
Cases
2096
340
297
1459
Mean
Median
3.54 years
2.63 years
4.24 years
3.88 years
3.39 years
2.26 years
2.63 years
1.35 years
Table 25. Number of years involved, pre-adolescent sex play
(e.g,, Hamilton 1929) ; but it is probably still too low, for 70 per cent of the
pre-adolescent boys who have contributed to the present study have
admitted such experience, and there is no doubt that even they forget many
of their earlier activities. It is not Improbable that nearly all boys have some
pre-adolescent genital play with other boys or with girls. Only about one-
fifth as many of the girls have such play.
Most of this pre-adolescent sex play occurs between the ages of eight
and thirteen (Table 24, Figure 25), although some of it occurs at every age
from earliest childhood to adolescence. For a quarter of the boys who
have such play, the activity is limited to a single year (24.3%) or two
(17.9%) or three (10.4%) in pre-adolescence (Table 25). For many of them
there is only a single experience. A third of the active males (36.2%) con-
tinue the play for five years or more. That the activity does not extend fur-
ther is clearly a product of cultural restraints, for pre-adolescent sex play
in the other anthropoids is abundant and continues into adult performance
(Bingham 1928). Most of the play takes place with companions close to
the subject’s own age. On the other hand, the boy’s initial experience is
often (although not invariably) with a slightly older boy or girl. Older
persons are the teachers of younger people in all matters, including the
sexual. The record includes some cases of pre-adolescent boys involved in
sexual contacts with adult females, and still more cases of pre-adolescent
boys involved with adult males. Data on this point were not systematically
gathered from all histories, and consequently the frequency of contacts
with adults cannot be calculated with precision.
168
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Homosexual Play. On the whole, the homosexual child play is found in
more histories, occurs more frequently, and becomes more specific than
the pre-adolescent heterosexual play. This depends, as so much of the
adult homosexual activity depends, on the greater accessibility of the boy’s
own sex (Table 26). In the younger boy, it is also fostered by his socially
encouraged disdain for girls’ ways, by his admiration for masculine prow-
ess, and by his desire to emulate older boys. The anatomy and functional
capacities of male genitalia interest the younger boy to a degree that is not
Companions of Pre-adolescent Boys
AT Subject’s Age 10-11
total
educational level
u. s.
classefication
POPULA-
TION
%
0-8
%
9-12
13+
%
Males predominate
72.3
73.8
69.2
80.7
Males many, females some
36.0
32.7
34.3
49.4
Males many, females none
32.8
37.1
31.4
29.0
Males some, females none
3.5
4.0 1
3.5 j
2.3
Males equal females
23.0
22.8
24.8 1
16.7
Males many, females many
17 . 6 ^
17.4
18.8
13.7
Males some, females some
3.3
2.0
4.3
2.3
Males none, females none
2.1
3.4
1.7
0.7
Females predominate
4.7
3.4
6.0
2.6
Males none, females some
0.3
0.0
0.6
0.1
Males none, females many
0.4
0.4
0.5
0.1
Males some, females many
4.0
3.0
4.9
2.4
Cases
4311
820
633
2858
Table 26. Sex of companions of pre-adolescent boys
A record of the boy’s associates, in his play and social activities, when he is 10-11
years of age.
appreciated by older males who have become heterosexually conditioned
and who are continuously on the defensive against reactions which might
be interpreted as homosexual.
About half of the older males (48%), and nearer two-thirds (60%) of
the boys who were pre-adolescent at the time they contributed their
histories, recall homosexual activity in their pre-adolescent years. The
mean age of the first homosexual contact is about nine years, two and a
half months (9.21 years) (Table 28, Figures 25, 26).
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
169
The order of appearance of the several homosexual techniques is:
exhibition of genitalia, manual manipulation of genitaUa, anal or oral
contacts with genitalia, and urethral insertions (Table 27). Exhibition is
much the most common form of homosexual play (in 99.8 per cent of all
the histories which have any activity). It appears in the sex play of the
youngest children, where much of it is incidental, definitely casual, and
quite fruitless as far as erotic arousal is concerned. The most extreme
development of exhibitionism occurs among the older pre-adolescents and
the younger adolescent males who have discovered the significance of self
masturbation and may have acquired proficiency in effecting orgasm. By
that time there is a social value in establishing one’s ability, and many a
ANY SEX PLAY HETEROSEXUAL COITAL HOMOSEXUAL
PLAY PLAY PLAY
Figure 25. Percent of males involved in sex play at each pre-adolescent age
Data all corrected for U. S. Census distribution.
boy exhibits his masturbatory techniques to lone companions or to whole
groups of boys. In the latter case, there may be simultaneous exhibition as
a group activity. The boy’s emotional reaction in such a performance is
undoubtedly enhanced by the presence of the other boys. There are teen-
age boys who continue this exhibitionistic activity throughout their high
school years, some of them even entering into compacts with their closest
friends to refrain from self masturbation except when in the presence of
each other. In confining such social performances to self masturbation,
these boys avoid conflicts over the homosexual. By this time, however, the
psychic reactions may be homosexual enough, although it may be diflS.cult
to persuade these individuals to admit it.
170
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Exhibitionism leads naturally into the next step in the homosexual play,
namely the mutual manipulation of genitalia. Such manipulation occurs in
the play of two-thirds (67.4%) of all the pre-adolescent males who have any
homosexual activity (Table 27). Among younger pre-adolescents the man-
ual contacts are still very incidental and casual and without any recogni-
tion of the emotional possibilities of such experience. Only a small portion
Techniques in Pre-adolescent Sex Play
% OF ACTIVE POPULATION
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
SEXUAL PLAY,
% OF TOTAL
HETEROSEXUAL PLAY
POPULATION
Exhibition
Manual
Coital
Oral
Vaginal
Insertions
Total
1843
39.6
99.6
81.4
55.3
8.9
49.1
0-8
270
30.0
99.6
91.7
74.4
17.0
59.3
9-12
295
44.0
99.7
80.0
52.4
5.8
49.8
13+
1277
43.0
99.0
64.8
25.7
3.4
24.4
ANY HOMO-
HOMOSEXUAL PLAY
EDUC.
SEXUAL PLAY,
LEVEL
CASES
% OF TOTAL
POPULATION
' Exhibition
Manual
Anal
Oral
Urethral
Insertions
Total
2102
44.0
99.8
67.4
17.0
15.9
6.0
0-8
341
38.0
100,0
66.7
17.5
13.3
4.8
9-12
298
45.0
99.7
67.4
16.7
16.8
6.9
13-f-
1463
53.0
99.5
69.2
16.9
17.7
5.3
Table 27, Techniques in pre-adolescent sex play
In order to determine the percent of the total pre-adolescent male population which
has experience with any particular technique, multiply the figure in Column 3 (which
shows the percent of the total population which has any kind of heterosexual or homo-
sexual experience) by the incidence figure for the particular technique irnder considera-
tion.
of the cases leads to the sort of manipulation which does effect arousal and
possibly orgasm in the partner. Manual manipulation is more likely to
become so specific if the relation is had with a somewhat older boy, or
with an adult. Without help from more experienced persons, many pre-
adolescents take a good many years to discover masturbatory techniques
that are sexually effective.
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
171
Anal intercourse is reported by 17 per cent of the pre-adolescents who
have any homosexual play. Anal intercourse among younger boys usu-
ally fails of penetration and is therefore primarily femoral. Oral manipu-
lation is reported by nearly 16 per cent of the boys (Table 27). Among
younger boys, erotic arousal is less easily effected by oral contacts, more
easily effected by manual manipulation. The anal and oral techniques are
limited as they are because even at these younger ages there is some
knowledge of the social taboos on these activities; and it is, in conse-
quence, probable that the reported data are considerable understatements
of the activities which actually occur.
Pre-adolescent homosexual play is carried over into adolescent or adult
activity in something less than a half of all the cases (Table 29). There are
Figure 26. Age of first pre-adolescent sexual experience
Each curve an ogive, where 100 per cent is the total number of boys who ever have
such experience.
differences between social levels. In lower educational levels, the chances
are 50-50 that the pre-adolescent homosexual play will be continued into
adolescence or later. For the group that will go to college, the chances are
better than four to one that the pre-adolescent activity will not be followed
by later homosexual experience. In many cases, the later homosexuality
stops with the adolescent years, but many of the adults who are actively
and more or less exclusively homosexual date their activities from pre-
adolescence. In a later volume these data will be examined in more detail,
in connection with an analysis of the factors involved in the development
of a heterosexual-homosexual balance.
First Pre-adolescent Sexual Experience
TOTAL U.S.
POPULATION
educ. level
0-8
educ. level
9-12
educ. level
13 +
%
Cumu-
lat. %
Cases
%
Cumu-
lat. %
Cases
%
Cumu-
lat. %
Cases
%
Cumu-
lat. %
Any Sex Play
5
16.1
16.1
65
15.2
15.2
62
15.3
15,
.3
401
20.
,9
20.9
6
13.9
30. Ol
56
13.1
28.3
58
14.4
29,
.7
260
13.
^5 1
34.4
7
11.5
41.5
46
10.6
38.9
49
12.1
41.
,8
215
11.
2
45.6
8
14.5
56.0
67
15.7
54.6
55
13.6
55.
.4
298
15.
5
61.1
9
8.0
64.0
38
8.9
63.5
30
7.4
62.
,8
166
8.
6
69.7
10
15.1
79.1
68
15.9
79.4
60
14.9
77.
.7
270
14.
1
83.8
11
8.1
87.2
26 '
6.1
85.5
38
9 4
87.
,1
145
7.
5
91.3
12
8.5
95.7
35
8.2
93. 7|
37
9.2
96.
,3
129
6.
7
98.0
13
3.4
99.1
19
4.4
98.1
13
3.2 !
99.
.5
33
1.
7
1 99.7
14
0.9
100.0
8 i
1.9
100.0
2
0.5 i
100.
,0
4
0.
3
100.0
Cases
2753
428
404
1921
Mean
Median
8.81 years
7 . 59 years
8.93 years
7.69 years
8 . 84 years
7.61 years
8 . 45 years
7.29 years
Heterosexual Play
5
15.4
15.4
39
14 4
14.4
42
14.1
14.1
292
22.8
22.8
6
13.2
28.6
34
12.5
26.9
39 1
13.1
27.2
194
15.1
37.9
7
13.5
42.1
34
12.5
39 4
43 1
14.4
41.6
153
11.9
49.8
8
14.9
57.0
44
16.3
55.7
41
13.8
55.4
206
16.1
65.9
9
7.4
64.4
21
7.8
63.5
21
7.0
62.4
105
8.2
74.1
10
14.1
78.5
41
15.1
78.6
41
13.8
76.2
166
13.0 1
87.1
11
8.8
87.3
19
7.0
85.6
31
10.4
86.6
86
6.7
93.8
12
9.2
96.5
26
9.6
95.2
3P
10.1
96.7
62
4.8
98.6
13
2.7
99.2
11
4.1
99.3
7
2.3
99.0
17
1.3
99.9
14
0.8
100.0
2
0.7
100.0
3
1.0
100.0
1
0.1
100.0
Cases
1851
271
298
1282
Mean
Median
1 8.81 years
7.33 years
8.91 years
7.66 years
8.91 years
7 . 22 years
8.20 years
7.01 years
Homosexual Play
5
12.4
12.4
47
13.7
13.7
1
33 I
11.1
11.1
208
14.2
14.2
6
12.0
24.4
43
12.6
26.3
36 1
12.1
23.2
153 !
10.5
24.7
7
10.5
34.9
37
10.8
37.1
31 1
10.4
33.6
145 1
9.9 ;
34.6
8
13.5
48.4
51
14.9
52.0
37
12.4
46.0
217
14.9
49.5
9
9.1
57.5
29
8.5
60.5
27
9.1
55.1
146
10.0
59.5
10
16.9
74.4
56
16.4
76.9
51
17.0
72.1
257
17.6
77.1
11
10.2
t 84.6
23
6.7
83.6
36
12.1
84.2
156
10.7
87.8
12
9.5
94.1
29
8.5
92.1
30
10.1
94.3
138
9.4
97.2
13
4.7
> 98.8
18
5.3
^ 97.4
15
5.0
99.3
34
2.3
99.5
14
1.2
1 100.0
9
2.6
100.0
2
0.7
100.0
8
0.5
100.0
Cases
2102
342
298
1462
Mean
9.21 years
9.10 years
9.31 years
9 . 06 years
Median
8.22 years
7 . 87 years
8.46 years
8.06 years
Table 28. Age of first pre-adolescent sex play
The cumulated percentages (ogives) are based on the total number of individuals who ever
have such sexual experience (the active population). They do not represent percents of the
total population.
172
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
173
Heterosexual Play. The average age for beginning pre-adolescent hetero-
sexual play is about eight years and ten months (a mean of 8.81 years)
(Table 28, Figures 25, 26). This is approximately five months earlier than the
average age for the beginning of homosexual play; but heterosexual activity,
nonetheless, does not occupy quite as much of the attention of the pre-
adolescent boys. It is found in 40 per cent of the pre-adolescent histories.
Just as with the homosexual, the heterosexual play begins with the
exhibition of genitalia; and of those pre-adolescent boys who have any
sex play with girls, about 99 per cent engage in such exhibition (Table 27).
For nearly 20 per cent of the boys, this is the limit of the activity. There is
considerable curiosity among children, both male and female, about the
genitalia of the opposite sex, fostered, if not primarily engendered, by the
social restrictions on inter-sexual display. The boy is incited by the greater
care which many parents exercise in covering the genitalia of the girls in
the family — a custom which reaches its extreme in some other cultures where
the boys may go completely nude until adolescence, while the girls are
carefully clothed at least from the ages of four or five.
Of those pre-adolescent boys who have any heterosexual play, 81.4 per
cent carry it to the point of manually manipulating the genitalia of the
female (Table 27). For many of the youngest boys this is even more inci-
dental than the manual manipulation which occurs in homosexual contacts.
Among certain groups, particularly in upper social levels, the children
sometimes lack information on coitus, and there may be no comprehension
that there are possibilities in heterosexual activity other than those afforded
by manual contacts. There are vaginal insertions which involve objects of
various sorts, but most often they are finger insertions. Pre-adolescent
attempts to effect genital union occur in nearly 22 per cent of all male
histories, which is over half (55.3%) of the histories of the boys who have
Siny pre-adolescent play. On this point, there are considerable differences
between social levels (Table 27). Three-quarters (74.4%) of the boys who
will never go beyond eighth grade try such pre-adolescent coitus, but such
experience is had by only one-quarter (25.7%) of the pre-adolescent boys
of the group which will ultimately go to college (Chapter 10).
The lower level boy has considerable information and help on these
matters from older boys or from adult males, and in many cases his first
heterosexual contacts are with older girls who have already had experi-
ence. Consequently, in this lower level, pre-adolescent contacts often
involve actual penetration and the children have what amounts to real
intercourse. The efforts of the upper level boys are less often successful, in
many cases amounting to little more than the apposition of genitalia. With
the lower level boy, pre-adolescent coitus may occur with some frequency,
and it may be had with a variety of partners. For the upper level boy, the
experience often occurs only once or twice, and with a single partner or
174
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
two. These diflferences between patterns at different social levels, even in
pre-adolescence, are of the utmost significance in any consideration of a
program of sex education (Chapter 10).
Oral contacts with females occur in only 8.9 per cent of the boys who
have pre-adolescent heterosexual play. Oral contacts are more likely to
occur where the girl is older, or where an adult woman is involved. There
is considerable evidence that oral contacts are recognized as taboo, even
at pre-adolescent ages.
Continuity of Pre-adolescent Sex Play
% OF ACTIVE POPULATIONS
Population
HETEROSEXUAL
PETTING
heterosexual
COITUS
homosexual
PLAY
Cases
% with
Con-
tinuity
Cases
%with
1 Con-
tinuity
Cases
% with
Con-
tinuity
Total (U. S. Correction)
1227
64.9
628
54.7
1412
42.1
Educ. level 0-8
243
77.0
196
73.5
243
50.6
Educ. level 9-12
221
67.4
147
53.7
207
42.5
Educ. level 13-1-
763
{
29.8
285
18.6
962
22.5
Table 29. Continuity of pre-adolescent "sex play with adolescent activity
Pre-adolescent heterosexual play is carried over into corresponding
adolescent activities in nearly two-thirds of the cases (Table 29). There is
a somewhat higher carry-over of heterosexual petting, a lesser carry-over
of heterosexual coitus. Again there are tremendous differences between
social levels. If coitus is had by a pre-adolescent boy who will never go
beyond eighth grade in school, the chances are three to one that he will
continue such activity, without any major break, in his adolescent and
adult years. If the boy who has pre-adolescent coitus belongs to the group
that will ultimately go to college, the chances are more than four to one
that the activity will not be continued in his adolescent years. Community
attitudes on these matters are already exerting an influence on the pre-
adolescent boy.
Animal Contacts. Animal contacts are largely confined to farm boys. Of
the boys who will ever be involved, a third have had their first contacts by
nine years of age; but between 10 and 12 there is a more rapid increase in
the active incidence figures. The level which is reached in these years is
never again equalled, either in pre-adolescence or in adolescent or in later
years. In about a third of the cases, there is direct continuity between the
pre-adolescent and the adolescent experiences with animal intercourse.
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITy
175
PRE-ADOLESCENT ORGASM
In the technical literature there seem to be only a few references (e.g.,
Moll 1912, Merrill 1918, Moses 1922, Krafft-Ebing 1924, Rohleder 1921,
Hamilton 1929:427) to the possibility of the pre-adolescent child experi-
encing orgasm. But, as we have already indicated, orgasm is not at all
First Pre-adolescent Erotic Arousal and Orgasm
NUMBER OF CASES
AGE
EROTIC AROUSAL
ORGASM
In Any
Sex Play
In Hetero-
sexual
Play
In Homo-
sexual
Play
Data from
Present
Study
Data from
Other
Subjects
Total
Cases
%0f
Total
1
12
12
2.5
2
8
8 .
1.6
3
2
7
9
1.8
4
10
9
2
12
12
2.5
5
30
23
8
5
9
14 1
2.9
6
26
21
8
15
19
34 1
7.0
7
32
29
6
21
17
38
7.8
8
38
29
12
27
21
48
9.9
9 i
38
37
• 3
24
26
50
10.3
10
83
71
17
56
26
82
16.8
11
72
67
13
54 i
22
76
15.6
12
92
84
13
51
23
74
15.2
13
37
37
3
15
9
24
4.9
14
10
10
3
3
6
1.2
15
3
2
1
Total
471
419
86
273
214
487
100.0
Mean
Age
10.28
10.41
9.62
10.40
8.51
9.57
Median
Age
9.75
9.87
9.26
9.77
8.10
9.23
Table 30. Pre-adolescent eroticism and orgasm
All data based on memory of older subjects, except in the column entitled “data
from other subjects.” In the later case, original data gathered by certain of our subjects
were made available for use in the present volume. Of the 214 cases so reported, all
but 14 were subsequently observed in orgasm (see Table 31).
rare among pre-adolescent boys, and it also occurs among pre-adolescent
girls. Since this significant fact has not been well established in scientific
publication, Tt will be profitable to record here the nature of the data for
the male in some detail.
7
176
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Pre-adolescent boys, since they are incapable of ejaculation, may be as
uncertain as some inexperienced females in their recognition of orgasm.
In consequence, the record on such early experience is incomplete in most
of the histories, and it is as yet impossible to make any exact calculation of
Pre-adolescent Experience in Orgasm
AGE WHEN
OBSERVED
TOTAL
POPULA-
TION
CASES NOT
REACHING
CLIMAX
CASES
REACHING
CLIMAX
CUMU-
LATED
POPULA-
TION
CUMU-
LATED
CASES TO
CLIMAX
PERCENT OF
EACH AGE
REACHING
CLIMAX
2mon,
1
1
0
3 mon.
2
2
0
4mon.
1
1
0
5 mon.
2
1
1
8 mon.
2
1
1
9 mon.
1
1
0
10 mon.
4
1
3
11 mon.
3
1
2
12 mon.
12
10
2
Up to 1 yr.
28
19
9
28
9
32.1
Up to 2 yr.
22
11
i 11
50
20
Up to 3 yr.
9
2
7
59
27
1 cn 1
Up to 4 yr.
12
5
7 e
71
34
) D7. 1
Up to 5 yr.
6
3
3
77
37
]
Up to 6 yr.
12
5
7
89
44
Up to 7 yr.
17
8
9
106
53
Up to 8 yr.
26
12
14
132
67
^ 63.4
Up to 9 yr.
29
10
19
161
86
Up to 10 yr.
28
! 6
22
189
108
Up to 1 1 yr.
34
9
25
223
133
1
Up to 12 yr.
46
7
39
269
172
80.0
Up to 13 yr.
35
7
28
304
200
1
Up to 14 yr.
11
5
6
315
206
Up to 15 yr.
2
2
0
317
206
Total
317
111
206
317
206
65.0
Table 31. Ages of pre-adolescent orgasm
Based on actual observation of 317 males.
the incidence or frequency in the population as a whole. Nevertheless,
some of the younger boys who have contributed to the present study have
described what is unmistakably sexual orgasm in their pre-adolescent his-
tories, and a larger number of adults remember such experience (Table 30).
Better data on pre-adolescent climax come from the histories of adult
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
177
males who have had sexual contacts with younger boys and who, with
their adult backgrounds, are able to recognize and interpret the boys’
experiences. Unfortunately, not all of the subjects with such contacts in
their histories were questioned on this point of pre-adolescent reactions;
but 9 of our adult male subjects have observed such orgasm. Some of these
adults are technically trained persons who have kept diaries or other
records which have been put at our disposal; and from them we have
secured information on 317 pre-adolescents who were either observed in
self masturbation, or who were observed in contacts with other boys or
older adults. The record so obtained shows a considerable sexual capacity
among these boys. Before presenting the data, however, it should be em-
phasized that this is a record of a somewhat select group of younger males
and not a statistical representation for any larger group. These records are
based on more or less uninhibited boys, most of whom had heard about
sex and seen sexual activities among their companions, and many of whom
had had sexual contacts with one or more adults. Most of them knew of
orgasm as the goal of such activity, and some of them, even at an early
age, had become definitely aggressive in seeking contacts. Most boys are
more inhibited, more restricted by parental controls. Many boys remain in
ignorance of the nature of a complete sexual response until they become
adolescent.
Orgasm has been observed in boys of every age from 5 months to adoles-
cence (Table 31). Orgasm is in our records for a female babe of 4 months.
The orgasm in an infant or other young male is, except for the lack of an
ejaculation, a striking duplicate of orgasm in an older adult. As described
earher in this chapter, the behavior involves a series of gradual physiologic
changes, the development of rhythmic body movements with distinct
penis throbs and pelvic thrusts, an obvious change in sensory capacities,
a final tension of muscles, especially of the abdomen, hips, and back, a
sudden release with convulsions, including rhythmic anal contractions —
followed by the disappearance of all symptoms. A fretful babe quiets down
under the initial sexual stimulation, is distracted from other activities,
begins rhythmic pelvic thrusts, becomes tense as climax approaches, is
thrown into convulsive action, often with violent arm and leg movements,
sometimes with weeping at the moment of climax. After climax the child
loses erection quickly and subsides into the calm and peace that typically
follows adult orgasm. It may be some time before erection can be induced
again after such an experience. There are observations of 16 males up to
1 1 months of age, with such typical orgasm reached in 7 cases. In 5 cases
of young pre-adolescents, observations were continued over periods of
months or years, until the individuals were old enough to make it certain
that true orgasm was involved; and in all of these cases the later reactions
were so similar to the earlier behavior that there could be no doubt of the
oigastic nature of the first experience.
178
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
While the records for very young boys are fewer than for boys nearer
the age of adolescence, and while the calculations for these youngest cases
are consequently less reliable, the data do show a gradual increase, with
advancing age, in the percentage of cases able to reach climax : 32 per cent
of the boys 2 to 12 months of age, more than half (57.1%) of the 2- to 5-
year olds, and nearly 80 per cent of the pre-adolescent boys between 10 and
13 years of age (inclusive) came to climax. Half of the boys had reached
climax by 7 years of age (nearly half of them by 5 years), and two-thirds
of them by 12 years of age. The observers emphasize that there are some
of these pre-adolescent boys (estimated by one observer as less than one-
quarter of the cases), who fail to reach climax even under prolonged and
varied and repeated stimulation; but, even in these young boys, this
probably represents psychologic blockage more often than physiologic
incapacity.
TIME
CASES
TIMED
PERCENT OF
POPULATION
CUMULATED
PERCENT
Up to 10 sec.
12
6.4
6.4
10 sec. to 1 min.
46
24.5
30.9
1 to 2 min.
40
21.3
52.2
2 to 3 min.
23
12.2
64.4
3 to 5 min.
33
17.5
81.9
5 to 10 min.
23
12.2
94,1
Over 10 min.
11
5.9
100.0
Total
188
100.0
Mean time to climax: 3 .02 minutes
Median time to climax: 1.91 minutes
Table 32. Speed of pre-adolescent orgasm
Duration of stimulation before climax ; observations timed with second hand or stop
watch. Ages range from five months of age to adolescence.
In the population as a whole, a much smaller percentage of the boys
experience orgasm at any early age, because few of them find themselves
in circumstances that test their capacities; but the positive record on these
boys who did have the opportunity makes it certain that many infant males
and younger boys are capable of orgasm, and it is probable that half or
more of the boys in an uninhibited society could reach climax by the time
they were three or four years of age, and that nearly all of them could
experience such a climax three to five years before the onset of adolescence.
Erection is much quicker in pre-adolescent boys than in adults, although
the speed with which climax is reached in pre-adolescent males varies
considerably in different boys (Table 32), just as it does in adults. There are
two-year olds who come to climax in less than 10 seconds, and there are
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
179
two-year olds who may take 10 or 20 minutes, or more. There is a similar
range among pre-adolescents of every other age. The mean time required
to reach climax was almost exactly 3 minutes, and the median time was
under 2 minutes. From earliest infancy until the middle twenties there is
no effect of age on this point, although beyond that older males slow up
in speed of response (Chapter 6).
The most remarkable aspect of the pre-adolescent population is its
capacity to achieve repeated orgasm in limited periods of time. This capac-
ity definitely exceeds the ability of teen-age boys who, in turn, are much
more capable than any older males (Tables 33, 34, 48, Figure 36). Among
182 pre-adolescent boys on whom sufficient data are available, more than
NO. OF
ORGASMS
CASES
OB-
SERVED
PERCENT
OF
POPULA-
TION
CUMU-
LATED
PERCENT
TIME BETWEEN
ORGASMS
CASES
TIMED
PERCENT
OF
POPULA-
TION
CUMU-
LATED
PERCENT
1
81
44.5
100.0
Up to 10 sec.
3
4.7
4.7
2
17
9.3
55.5
11 to 60 sec.
15
23.5
28.2
3
18
9.9
46.2
Up to 2 min.
8
12.5
40.7
4
10
5,5
36,3
Up to 3 min.
10
15.6
56.3
5
14
7.7
30.8
Up to 5 min.
7
10.9
67.2
6-10
30
16.5
23.1
Up to 10 min.
11
17.2
84.4
11-15
9
4.9 1
6.6
Up to 20 min.
7
10.9
95.3
16-20
2
1.1
1.7*
Up to 30 min.
1
1.6
96.9
21 +
1
0.6
0.6
Over 30 min.
2
3.1
100.0
Total
182
100.0
100.0
Total
64
100.0
100.0
Mean No. of Orgasms: 3.72 Mean Time Lapse: 6.28 minutes
Median No. of Orgasms: 2.62 Median Time Lapse: 2.25 minutes
Table 33. Multiple orgasm in pre-adolescent males
Based on a small and select group of boys. Not typical of the experience, but sug-
gestive of the capacities of pre-adolescent boys in general.
half (55.5%, 101 cases) readily reached a second climax within a short
period of time, and nearly a third (30.8%) of all these 182 boys were able
to achieve 5 or more climaces in quite rapid succession (Tables 32-34).
It is certain that a higher proportion of the boys could have had multiple
orgasm if the situation had offered. Among 64 cases on which there are
detailed reports, the average interval between the first and second climaces
ranged from less than 10 seconds to 30 minutes or more, but the mean
interval was only 6.28 minutes (median 2.25 minutes) (Table 33). There
are older males, even in their thirties and older, who are able to equal this
performance, but a much higher proportion of these pre-adolescent males
are so capable. Even the youngest males, as young as 5 months in age, are
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
m
capable of such repeated reactions. Typical cases are shown in Table 34.
The maximum observed was 26 climaces in 24 hours, and the report
indicates that still more might have been possible in the same period of
time.
About a third of these boys remain in erection after the first orgasm and
proceed directly to a second contact. There is another third that stays in
erection but experiences some physical and erotic let-down before trying
to achieve a second orgasm. In another third, the erection quickly subsides
and there is a complete disappearance of arousal as soon as orgasm is
reached. Any repetition depends upon new arousal, and that may not be
possible for some minutes or hours after the original experience. Among
AGE
NO. OF
ORGASMS
TIME
INVOLVED
AGE
NO. OF
ORGASMS
TIME
INVOLVED
5 m©n.
3
?
11 yr.
11
1 hr.
11 mon.
10
1 hr.
11 yr.
19
1 hr.
11 mon.
14
38 min.
12 yr.
7
3 hr.
/ 7
9 min.
3 min.
2yr.
65 min.
12 yr.
1 9
2 hr.
2iyr.
^ 4
2 mm.
12 yr.
12
2 hr.
4 yr.
6
5 min.
12 yr.
15
1 hr.
4 yr.
17
10 hr.
13 yr.
7
24 min.
4 yr.
26
24 hr.
13,yr.
s
2i hr.
7yr.
7
3 hr.
13 yr.
9 i
8 hr.
8 yr.
8
2 hr.
f ^ 1
70 sec.
9 yr.
7
68 min.
13 yr.
11
8 hr.
10 yr.’
9
52 min.
[26
24 hr.
10 yr.
14
24 hr.
14 yr.
11
4 hr.
Table 34. Examples of multiple orgasm in pre-adolescent males
Some instances of higher frequencies.
adult males, more individuals belong to this last class, and a much
smaller number remains in erection until there is a repetition of the
sexual contact.
These data on the sexual activities of younger males provide an impor-
tant substantiation of the Freudian view of sexuality as a component that
is present in the human animal from earliest infancy, although it gives no
support to the Freudian concept of a pre-genital stage of generalized erotic
response that precedes more specific genital activity; nor does it show any
necessity for a sexually latent or dormant period in the later adolescent
years, except as such inactivity results from parental and social repressions
of the growing child. It would seem that analysts have been correct in
considering these capacities for childhood sexual development, or their
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
181
suppression, as prime sources of adult patterns of sexual behavior and of
many of the characteristics of the total personality. There are, of course,
some who have questioned the truly sexual nature of the child’s experi-
ences. Moore, for instance, remarks (1943, p. 45): ‘‘One would think that
psychoanalysts would have confirmed their theories of infantile emotional-
ity by a careful observation and study of large numbers of children . . . but
I have been unable to find any such study by a member of the psycho-
analytic school.” And again (p. 48): “As to the presence of specific sexual
experience in infancy and early childhood, we shall never be able to solve
the problem by appealing to the introspection of the infant and the child.
Neither does the memory of the adult reach back to those early years so
that he can tell us whether or not it is really true that in infancy and early
childhood he experienced specific sexual excitement, and that this was
repressed and became latent, as Freud maintained.”
Moore leans heavily on Bridges (1936) and Buhler (1931) to argue
(pp. 46-48) that the earliest manifestations of emotion may be labelled
distress or delight; but that, although young children may perform “acts
similar to masturbation” and seek a partner for genital manipulation,
“there is no evidence . . . that these acts are accompanied by specific sexual
pleasure . . . even though there are signs that the child in some manner
enjoys them.” The conclusion is that although the child is capable of a
tender personal love, it is of a non-erotic character and has nothing to do
with the beginnings of sexuality.«Adding data from endocrinologic sources,
he concludes that specifically sexual behavior is the product of biologic
growth and of experience.
Complying with the scientifically fair demand for records from trained
observers, and answering Moore’s further demand (p. 71) that “writers
. . . test their theories ... by empirical study and statistical procedures,”
we have now reported observations on such specifically sexual activities
as erection, pelvic thrusts, and the several other characteristics of true or-
gasm in a list of 317 pre-adolescent boys ranging between infants of five
months and adolescence in age. Adding the records based on the memories
of older subjects concerning their own, and often clearly established, early
experiences, there is a record of orgasm in 604 pre-adolescent boys (Tables
30 and 31 combined). The existence of such an early capacity is exactly
what students of animal behavior have reported for other mammals (Beach
1947), and it is, therefore, not surprising to find it in the human infant.
Important as learning and conditioning may be in the later development
of specific types of sexual techniques and in the socio-sexual adjustments
of the adolescent and adult, it must be accepted as a fact that at least some
and probably a high proportion of the infant and older pre-adolescent
males are capable of specific sexual response to the point of complete
orgasm, whenever a sufficient stimulation is provided.
182
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
ADOLESCENCE
While the sexual history of the human male thus begins in earliest
infancy and develops continuously to its maximum activity somewhere
between the middle teens and twenty years of age (Chapter 7), the steady
progress of the development is, among primates, accelerated in a period of
growth which is known as adolescence.
During adolescence the young male rather suddenly acquires physical
stature and adult conformation, and he begins to produce an ejaculate
which contains mature sperm and which can, therefore, effect fertilization
when in contact with the egg of a mature female. These are the most
obvious and the biologically significant developments of the period; but
the student of human sexual behavior is concerned with adolescence, and
must consider its physical signs and stigmata, not because the physical
developments are in themselves of prime importance, but because adoles-
cence marks what is, in most individuals, a considerable break between the
patterns of sexual activity of the pre-adolescent boy and the patterns of the
older boy or adult. The sexual life of the younger boy is more or less a part
of his other play ; it is usually sporadic, and (under the restrictions imposed
by our social structure) it may be without overt manifestation in a fair
number of cases. The sexual life of the older male is, on the other hand, an
end in itself, and (in spite of our social organization) in nearly all boys its
overt manifestations become frequent and regular, soon after the onset of
adolescence.
In a portion of the cases the pre-adolescent sexual activities have pro-
vided the introduction to adult activities : simple heterosexual play turns
into more sophisticated petting; pre-adolescent attempts at intercourse
lead to adult coitus; some of the pre-adolescent homosexual play leads
into similar adult contacts. This is true in about 50 per cent of all male
histories which include any pre-adolescent play (Table 29). In an equal
number of the cases the pre-adolescent play ends well before or with the
onset of adolescence, and adolescent and more adult sexual activities must
start from new points, newly won social acquirements, newly learned
techniques of physical contact. In many cases the newly adolescent boy’s
capacity to ejaculate, his newly acquired physical characters of other sorts,
do something to him which brings child play to an end and leaves him
awkward about making further socio-sexual contacts. The psychologic and
social factors involved in this break between pre-adolescent sexuality and
adult sexual activity are questions that will deserve considerable study
by some qualified student. Those boys in whom child play does merge
directly into adult activity are more often from less inhibited, lower social
levels (Table 29).
For all boys, the experiences of pre-adolescence, whether directly con-
tinued or not, must provide considerable conditioning which encourages
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY 183
or inhibits their sexual development in adolescent and in more adult
years.
Adolescence is a period of time, and not a particular point in the life of
the growing boy. It involves a whole series of developmental changes, some
of which come earlier, some later in the course of events. Individuals differ
materially in the ages at which they experience the first of these events, and
somewhat in the sequence in which the other transformations follow (Table
35, Figure 27).
Among most boys, the physical changes of adolescence come on more
or less abruptly, usually between the ages of 11 and 14, and in that period
their sexual activities are suddenly stepped up until, within another few
years, most of them reach the maximum rate of their whole lives (Chapter
7). Among most females, as the data in another volume will show, sexual
development comes on more gradually than in the male, is often spread
over a longer period of time, and does not reach its peak until a good many
years after the boy is sexually mature.
Chiefly within the past decade, several studies based on physical exami-
nations of boys and girls have given precise information on the variation
and average ages involved in the developmental changes of adolescence.
Some of the studies (Baldwin 1916, Crampton 1908, 1944, Dimock 1937,
Kubitschek 1932, Schonfeld 1943) have been cross-sectional, based on
examinations of numbers of children of each age group; some, utilizing a
longitudinal approach, have involved the more exact task of following the
development of individual cases over a period of successive years (Boas
1932, Dearborn and Rothney 1941, Greulich et al. 1938, Jones 1944,
Meredith 1935, 1939, Shuttleworth 1937, 1939). The latter, however, are
not always the more fruitful studies, for such observations are tedious, and
long-time contacts so often fail that only a few subjects can be followed
through to conclusion.
The studies which are based on direct physical examinations may be
accepted as more accurate than our own, for we have relied for the most
part on the memory of persons who were removed by various and some-
times long periods of years from the events which they were recalhng; but
it is interesting to find that our records give averages and total curves
which are not significantly different from the data in the observational
studies (Chapter 4, Table 15, Figure 15). According to the memory of our
subjects, physical changes in the adolescent boy usually proceed as follows:
Beginning of development of pubic hair, first ejaculation, voice change,
initiation of rapid growth in height, and, after some lapse of time, com-
pletion of growth in height (Table 35, Figure 27). Similar data have been
previously published from our laboratory (Ramsey 1943a) for a small
sample of 291 younger males who were in or near the beginning of adoles-
cence at the time of the study. Our present, larger sample gives curves that
184
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Adolescent Physical Development
PUBIC
HRST
VOICE
BODY
COMPLETION
AGE
HAIR
EJACUL.
CHANGE
GROWTH
OF GROWTH
Percent Beginning
8
0.1
0.1
9
0.2
0.2
0.0
10
2.0
1.8
0.6
3.0
0.1
11
7.7
6.1
2.9
3.8
0.2
12
25.5
19.5
14.0
14.3
! 1.3
13
33.5
29.2
26.4
19.4
3.4
14
22.8
25.1
26.0
22.7
8.2
15
5.5
10.2
14.3
15.9
11.5
16
2.0
4.2
9.1
11.4
18.6
17
0.7
1.8
! 3.3
6.4
17.1
18
0.8
' 1.6
2.3
17.9
19
0.4
0.7
0.5
8.4
20
0.1
0.1
0.4
0.2
7.5
21
0.1
0.3
3.1
22
0.1
0.3
1.8
23
0.1
0.4
24
0.1
0.1
0.2
25
0.2
Cases
2511
3573
2279
1355 1
2621
Mean Age
Mnnw
14.44
14.49
17.47
Median Age
14.23
14.42
17.40
AGE
Cumulated Percent
8
0.1
0.1
9
0.2
0.3
0.1
10
2.2
2.1
0.6
3.1
0.1
11
9.9
8.2
3.5
6.9
0.3
12
35.4
27.7
17.5
21.2
1.6
13
68.9
56.9
43.9
40.6
5.0
14
91.7
82.0
69.9
63.3
13.2
15
97.2
92.2
84.2
79.2
24.7
16
99.2
96.4
93.3
90.6
43.3
17
99.9
98.2
96.6
97.0
60.4
18
99.9
99.0
98.2
99.3
78.3
19
99.9
99.4
98.9
99.8
86.7
20
100.0
99.5
99.3
100.0
94.2
21
99.7
99.6
97.3
22
99.8
99.9
99.1
23
99.9
99.9
99.5
24
100.0
100.0
99.7
25
100.0
Cases
2511
3573
2279
1355
2621
Table 35. Adolescent developments
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
185
are in most respects in close agreement with the Ramsey series ; but his
records show voice change beginning sooner after the onset of pubic hair
growth and before the first ejaculation (also see Jerome 1937, Curry 1940,
Pedrey 1945). The Ramsey data indicate that “breast knots,” or subareo-
lar nodes which are homologous to those which regularly occur in the
female, are found in at least one-third of these boys between the ages of
12 to 14 (Jung and Shafton 1935, Ramsey 1943). Physical examinations
(Meredith 1935, 1939) on limited and selected series of males have shown
that sudden body growth may begin nearer the time of pubic hair devel-
opment than our older subjects recall. There are many individual differ-
ences in the sequence of events.
The pubhshed studies of younger boys almost completely lack data on
the most significant of all adolescent developments, the occurrence of the
first ejaculation. There have been several attempts to secure information
by indirect methods, including a technique of examining for sperm in
early morning samples of urine (Baldwin 1928). These methods will not
soon supply any quantity of data; and the only other sources of informa-
tion on this point have been the records obtained from the recall of sub-
jects in the previously pubhshed case history studies. This material is now
augmented by a considerable record based on the memory of persons who
have contributed to the present study, and on an important body of data
from certain of our subjects who have observed first ejaculation in a hst of
several hundred boys.
The earliest ejaculation remembered by any of our apparently normal
males was at 8 (three males). We have the history of one unusual boy (a
186
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Negro, interviewed when he was 12) who fixed 6 as his age at first ejacula-
tion. The boy had been diagnosed by the clinician as “idiopathically pre-
cocious in development.” In the literature (e,g., Ford and Guild 1937,
Young 1937, Weinberger and Grant 1941) there are clinical cases for still
younger ages, most of them involving endocrine pathologies. Pubic hair
has been recorded for one year of age and non-motile sperm in urine after
prostate massage at four and a half years. Eight, however, is the earliest
age of first ejaculation known for apparently normal males.
Except for the 6 cases of life-long ejaculatory impotence referred to
earlier in the present chapter, the latest ages of first ejaculation reliably
SCHOOL
GRADE
.NO. OF BOYS
BEGINNING
ADOLESCENCE
% OF BOYS
BEGINNING
ADOLESCENCE
CUMULATED %
ADOLESCENT AT
END OF GRADE
1
6
0.16
0.16
2
14
0.38
0.54
3
42
1.13
1.67
4
82
2.20
3.87
5
180
4.83
8.70
6
409
10.96
19.66
7
667
17.88
37.54
8
959
25.71
63.25
9
863
23.14
86.39
10
376
10.08
96.47
11
96
2.57
99.04
12
24
0.64
99.68
13
11
0.29
99.97
14
1
0.03
100.00
Total
3730
100.00
100.00
Mean grade at onset of adolescence: 8.33 =t 0.028
Median grade at onset of adolescence: 8.49
Table 36. School grade at adolescence
Most of the boys reaching adolescence in the lowest grades are retarded individuals
of more advanced age than the average in the grade.
recorded in the histories are 21 for two apparently healthy males, 24 for a
religiously inhibited individual, and 22 and after 24 for two males with
hormonal deficiencies. The spread between the youngest and the oldest
non-endocrine case is 16 years. A variety of educational and social prob-
lems arise out of these differences between chronologic and sexual age.
For instance, an occasional boy in third or fourth grade is sexually as
mature as an occasional senior in college (Table 36, Figure 28).
In spite of this spread in the population as a whole, the record shows
(Table 35, Figure 27) that about 90 per cent of the males ejaculate for the
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
187
first time between the ages of 11 and 15 (inclusive). This is an age range of
5 years. At the end of the seventh grade in school, about a third (37.5%)
of the boys are adolescent; by the end of the tenth grade, nearly all of them
(96.5%) are so (Table 36, Figure 28). The average boy turns adolescent in
the eighth grade (a mean grade of 8.33).
The mean age of first orgasm resulting in ejaculation is 13 years, lOi
months (13.88 years). On this point, the male data are in striking contrast
with preliminary calculations on the female. By 15 years of age, 92 per
cent of the males have had orgasm, but at that same age less than a quarter
of the females have had such experience; and the female population is 29
SCHOOL
ORADE
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
fO
11
12
13
14
ADOUSCgNT
I r I I I I • » » ' •
0 20 40 60 SO 100
PERCENT
Figure 28. Percent of adolescent boys in each school grade
years old before it includes as high a percentage of experienced individuals
as is to be found in the male curve at 15. Precise data on the female must
await the publication of a later volume.
In the male the age of first ejaculation varies by nearly a year between
different educational (social) levels: the mean is 14.58 for boys who never
go beyond eighth grade in school, 13.97 for boys who go into high school
but not beyond, and 13.71 for boys who will go to college (Table 37). The
differences are probably the outcome of nutritional inequalities at different
social levels, and they are in line with similar differences in mean ages of
females at menarche, where nutrition is usually considered a prime factor
effecting variation.
1S8
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Ages at Onset of Adolescence
AGE
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
0-8
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
9-12
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
134-
Cases
% of
Popula-
tion
Cumu-
lated
Per-
cent
Cases
7oOf
Popula-
tion
Cumu-
lated
Per-
cent
Cases
%of
Popula-
tion
Cumu-
lated
Per-
cent
8
1
0.2
0.2
2
0.1
0.1
9 j
1
0.1
0.1
2
0.3 !
0.5
7
0.3
0.4
10
7
0.9
1.0
11
1.8
2.3
70
2.5
2.9
11 !
22
2.9
3.9
32
5.2
7.5
221
7.8
10.7
12
104
13.6
17.5
123
19.9
27.4
707
25.1
35.8
13
185
24.1
41.6
189
30.5
57.9
980
34.8
70.6
14
275
35.8
77.4
205
33.0
90.9
647
23.0
93.6
15
137
17.8
95.2
39
6.3
97.2
126
4.5
98.1
16
31
4.0
99.2
13
2.1
99.3
37
1.3
99.4
17
5
0.7
99.9
3
0.5
99.8
15
0.5
99.9
18
1
0.1
100.0
1
0.2
100.0 1
2
0.1
100.0
19
T
—
100 0
Total
768
100.0
619
100.0
2815
100.0
Mean
14.14 db 0,044
13.67 0.049
13.39 =i= 0.023
Median
14.24 years
13.75 years
13.41 years
TOTAL SAMPLE POPULATION
CORRECTED FOR
U. S. POPULATION
AGE
Cases
%of
Population
Cumulated
Percent
%of
Population
Cumulated
Percent
8
3
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
9
10
0.2
0.3
0.2
0.4
10
93
2.0
2.3
1.6
2.0
11
304
6.6
8.9
4.9
6.9
12
1035
22.5
31.4
18.7
25.6
13
1507
32.8
64.2
29.1
54.7
14
1209
26.3
90.5
32.4
87.1
15
316
6.9
97.4
9.6
96.7
16
85
1.9
99.3
2.6
99.3
17
23
0.5
99.8
0.6
99.9
18
4
0.1
99.9
0.2
100.0
19
1
0.1
100.0
—
100.0
Total
4590
100.0
100.0
Mean
Median
13.55 ± 0.018
13.56 years
Table 37. Ages at onset of adolescence
Comparing development for three groups defined in accordance with the years of schoohng
ultimately attained. Figures for the U. S. population are based on the figures for the sample
population corrected for the educational distribution shown ih the U. S. Census for 1940.
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
189
Since so many developments are involved, it is difficult to mark a single
point at which an individual may be said to have begun adolescence. In
the case of the male, it is not customary to attach that distinction to the
very first appearance of any adolescent change, but to pay more attention
to the time of first ejaculation, or to evidence that the boy would be
capable of ejaculation if the proper opportunity were at hand. We have,
to a large degree, followed this convention, in order that the calculations
may be compared with other published figures. If the year of first ejacula-
tion coincides with the year in which the pubic hair first appears, with the
time of onset of growth in height, or with other developments, there is no
question involved. If first ejaculation follows these other events by a year
ioo
80
60
UJ
CL
40
20
0
Figure 29, Age at onset of adolescence, by three educational levels
Curve for total population, on the basis of the U. S. Correction, is shown in the broken
line.
or more, the record must be examined to see whether there was overt
sexual behavior which would have provided previous opportunity for
orgasm, and the reliability of the record on the other adolescent characters
must be checked. First ejaculation which is derived from nocturnal dreams
usually occurs a year or more after the onset of other adolescent characters
and after ejaculation would have been possible by other means, if circum-
stances had aUowed. Taking these several thmgs into account, “adolescent
ages” have been assigned to each of the subjects in the present study, and
the distribution is shown in Table 37, Figure 29. When computed thus
the average age of onset of adolescence in the white male is about 13
years and 7 months.
mi
1
1
n
EDUC l^\
EL
m
EDUC
LEVEL 9 -
M
m
1
■
i
m
m
DC LEVEL
0
1
CD
■
■
■
9 10 II 12 13 14 15 16 17
AGE
190
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
For the U. S. population, the sources of first ejaculation (Table 38,
Figure 30) are, in order of frequency, masturbation (in about two-thirds
of the males), nocturnal emissions (in an eighth of the cases), heterosexual
coitus (in one boy out of eight), and homosexual contacts (in one boy out
of twenty), with spontaneous ejaculation, petting to climax, and inter-
course with other animals as less frequent stimuli for the initial experience
{cf, Rohleder 1921). There are considerable differences in first sources in
different educational levels. The highest incidence of masturbation as the
first source of ejaculation occurs among the boys who will leave school
NUMBER OF ADOLESCENT
MALES
PERCENT
OF POPULATION
SOURCE
Popu-
Educ.
Educ.
Educ.
Popu-
Educ.
Educ.
Educ.
Total
lat. in
Level
Level
Level
lat. in
Level
Level
Level
u. s.
Sample
0-8
9-12
13+
Sample
0-8
9-12
134-
Popu-
lation
No Ejaculation 1
14
4 1
2
3
0.4
0.6 j
0.4
0.1
0.42
Masturbation
2378
455
346
1293
66.2
68.2
70.1
62.2
68.39
Noct. Emiss.
798
47
58
654
22.2
7.1
11.7
31.4
13.11
Petting
13
2
2
9
0.4
0.3
0.4
0.4
0.37
Coitus
222
123 !
60
' 29
6.2 1
18.5 i
12.1
1.4
12.53
Homosexual
103
32
23
39
2.9 1
4.8
4.7
1.9
4.33
Animal Coitus
6
0
0
6
r 0.2
0.0
0.0
0.3
0.04
Spontaneous 1
54
3
3
48
1.5
0.5
0.6
2.3
0.81
Total
3588
666
494
2081
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.00
Table 38. Sources of first ejaculation
The final column shows percent involved if each educational level were represented
in the proportions shown in the 1940 Census.
between the ninth and twelfth grades, the highest incidence of nocturnal
emissions as the first source occurs among the boys who will subsequently
go to college, and the highest incidence of heterosexual intercourse as the
first source occurs among the boys who never get beyond the eighth grade
in school.
While “spontaneous” ejaculation, meaning ejaculation without specific
genital contact, is the first source of experience for only a small percentage
of the boys (0.81%), the items which stimulate such response constitute
an interesting list which includes non-sexual and more definitely sexual
emotional situations, and a variety of circumstances which involve physical
tension. In a number of cases {e.g., wrestling, prolonged sitting while
EARLY SEXUAL GROWTH AND ACTIVITY
191
reading a book) both physical tension and psychologic stimulation are
probably involved. The list includes a number of the non-sexual sources of
erotic stimulation listed earlier in this chapter, but the following tabulation
shows items which are responsible for actual ejaculation among these
early adolescent boys.
SOURCES OF FIRST SPONTANEOUS EJACULATION
Chiefly Physical Stimulation
Sitting at desk
Sitting in classroom
Lying still on floor
Lying still in bed
Urination
At toilet
General stimulation in bath
Moving water in bath
General stimulation with towel
General skin irritation
Vibration of a boat
Sliding on chair
Sliding down a bannister
Tension in gymnastics
Chinning on bar
Climbing tree, pole or rope
(A rather common source)
Wrestling with female
Wrestling with male
Riding an automobile
Tight clothing
Chiefly Emotional Stimulation
Day dreaming ' Milking a cow
Reading a book When scared at night
Walking down a street When bicycle was stolen
In vaudeville A bell ringing
In movies An exciting basketball game
Kissed by female Trying to finish an examination in
Watching petting • school
Peeping at nude female Reciting in front of class
Sex discussion at YMCA Injury in a car wreck
Beyond earliest adolescence, it is a rare male who ejaculates when no
physical contact is involved. Many teen-age and even older males come to
climax in heterosexual petting that may not involve genital contacts ; but
general body contact, or at least lip contact, is usually included in such
situations. There are stray cases of males of college age ejaculating under
the excitement of class recitation or examination, in airplanes during com-
bat, and under other rare circumstances. There are two cases of older males
who could reach climax by deliberate concentration of thought on erotic
situations ; but such spontaneous ejaculation is almost wholly confined to
younger boys just entering adolescence.
After the initial experience in ejaculation, practically all males become
regular in their sexual activity. This involves monthly, weekly, or even
daily ejaculation, which occurs regularly from the time of the very first
experience. Among approximately 4600 adolescent males, less than one
per cent (about 35 cases) record a lapse of a year or more between their
first experience and the adoption of a regular routine of sexual activ-
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
192
US. POPULATION
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL
EMISSION
INTERCOURSE
HOMOSEXUAL
CONTACT
OTHER
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL
EMISSION
INTERCOURSE
HOMOSEXUAL
CONTACT
OTHER
■
0-8
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL
EMISSION
INTERCOURSE
HOMOSEXUAL
CONTACT
OTHER
9-12
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL
EMISSION
INTERCOURSE
HOMOSEXUAL
CONTACT
OTHER
Figure 30. Sources of first ejaculation
Calculated for total population corrected for U. S. Census distribution, and for boys
of the grade school (0-8), high school (9-12), and college (13+) levels.
ity. This means that more than 99 per cent of the boys begin regular sexual
lives immediately after the first ejaculation. In this respect, the male is
again very different from the female, for there are many women who go
for periods of time ranging from a year to ten or twenty years between
their earlier experiences and the subsequent adoption of regularity m
activity. The male, in the course of his life, may change the sources of his
sexual outlet, and his frequencies may vary through the weeks and months,
and over a span of years, but almost never is there a complete cessation of
his activity until such time as old age finally stops all response.
Chapter 6
TOTAL SEXUAJL OUTLET
As previously noted, the six chief sources of orgasm for the human male
are masturbation, nocturnal emissions, heterosexual petting, heterosexual
intercourse, homosexual relations, and intercourse with animals of other
species. The sum of the orgasms derived from these several sources con-
stitutes the individual’s total sexual outlet.
Since practically all of the sexual contacts of the mature male involve
emotional changes, all of which represent expenditures of energy, all adult
contacts might be considered means of outlet, even though they do not
lead to orgasm. These emotional situations are, however, of such variable
intensity that they are difficult to assess and compare; and, for the sake of
achieving some precision in analysis, the present discussion of outlets is
confined to those instances of sexual activity which culminate in orgasm.
FREQUENCY OF TOTAL OUTLET
There are some individuals who derive 100 per cent of their outlet from
a single kind of sexual activity. Most persons regularly depend upon two
or more sources of outlet; and there are some who may include all six of
them in some short period of time. The mean number of outlets utilized by
our more than 5000 males is between 2 and 3 (means of 2.5 or 2.2) (Table
39). This number varies considerably with different age groups and with
different social levels (Figure 35; Chapters 7, 10).
There are, both theoretically and in actuality, endless possibilities in
combining these several sources of outlet and in the extent to which each
of them contributes to the total picture (Figure 31). The record of a single
sort of sexual activity, even though it be the one most frequently employed
by a particular group of males, does not adequately portray the whole
sexual life of that group. Published figures on the frequency of marital
intercourse, for instance (Pearl 1925), cannot be taken to be the equivalent
of data on the frequency of total outlet for the married male; for marital
intercourse may provide as little as 62 per cent of the orgasms of certain
groups of married males (Table 97). Similarly, studies of masturbation
among college and younger students are not the equivalents of studies of
total sexual outlet for such a group. Again, many persons who are rated
“homosexual” by their fellows in a school community, a prison population,
or society at large, may be deriving only a small portion of their total outlet
from that source. The fact that such a person may have had hundreds of
193
194
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
heterosexual contacts will, in most cases, be completely ignored. Even
psychologic studies have sometimes included, as “homosexual,” persons
who were not known to have had more than a single overt experience. In
assaying the significance of any particular activity in an individual history,
or any particular type of sexual behavior in a population as a whole, it is
necessary to consider the extent to which that activity contributes to the
total picture. Since all previously published rates on human sexual activity
have been figures for particular outlets, such as masturbation or marital
intercourse, the figures given in the present study on total outlet are higher
than previous data would have led one to expect.
SAMPLE POPULATION
u.
S. POPULATION
NO. OF
SOURCES
%0f
Cumu-
Cases
%0f
Cumu-
Cases
Popula-
tion
lated
Percent
per
10,000
Popula-
tion
lated
Percent
0
263
2.2
100.0
199
1.99
100.00
1
2,169
18.4
97.8
2,579
1 25.79
98.01
2
3,834
32.4
79.4
3,314
33.14
72.22
3
3,478
29.5
47.0
2,742
27.42
39.08
4
1,690
14.3
17.5
974
9.74
11.66
5
342
2.9
3.2
179
1.79
1.92
6
33
0.3
0.3
. 13
0.13
0.13
Total
11,809
1
10,000
Mean
2.45 =1= 0.01
2.22
Median
2.91
2.67
Table 39. Number of sources of outlet in any 5-year period
Computed for the whole population involved in the present study, and computed
for a theoretic adult male population with the age distribution found m the U. S,
Census for 1940.
The average (mean) frequency of total sexual outlet for our sample of
3905 white males ranging between adolescence and 30 years of age is
nearly 3.0 per week. It is precisely 2.88 for the total population of that age,
or 2.94 for the sexually active males in that population (Table 40, Figure
32). For the total population, including all persons between adolescence
and 85 years of age, the mean is 2.74 (Figure 33).
These average figures, however, are not entirely adequate, for they are
based upon the particular groups of males who have contributed so far to
this study. Subsequent analyses will show that there are differences in
mean frequencies of sexual activity, dependent upon such factors as age,
marital status, educational, religious, and rurahurban backgrounds, and
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
195
on other biologic and social factors. In order to be intelligible, any
discussion of sexual outlet should be confined to a particular group of
persons whose biologic condition, civil status, and social origins are homo-
geneous. Most of the present volume is concerned with the presentation of
data for such homogeneous groups. If there is any advantage in having a
generalized figure for the population of the country as a whole, that figure
is best calculated by determining the frequencies for a variety of these
homogeneous groups, determining the relative size of each of these groups
in the national census, and then, through a process of weighting of means,
reconstructing the picture for a synthetic whole (Chapter 3, Tables 7-1 1).
For this synthesized population, which more nearly represents the con-
stitution of the nation as a whole, we arrive at a figure of 3.27 per week for
the total sexual outlet of the average white American male under thirty
years of age (Table 40). For all white males up to age 85, the corrected
mean is 2.34 per week. The latter figure is lower because of the inactivity
of the older males.
INDIVIDUAL VARIATION
While approximately 3.3 is .the mean frequency of total outlet for
younger males, no mean nor median, nor any other sort of average, can be
significant unless one keeps in mind the range of the individual variation
and the distribution of these variants in the population as a whole. This
is particularly true in regard to human sexual behavior, because differences
in behavior, even in a small group, are much greater than the variation in
physical or physiologic characters (Table 40, Figures 32, 33). There are a
few males who have gone for long periods of years without ejaculating:
there is one male who, although apparently sound physically, had ejacu-
lated only once in thirty years. There are others who have maintained
average frequencies of 10, 20, or more per week for long periods of time;
one male (a scholarly and skilled lawyer) has averaged over 30 per week
for thirty years (Table 43). This is a difference of several thousand
times.
In considering structural characters of plants and animals, such as
total height in the human, or length of wings, legs or other parts in other
animals, a maximum that was two or three times the size of the minimum
would command considerable attention (Bateson 1894, Wechsler 1935,
Thorndike 1940). One of us has published data (Kinsey 1942) on individual
variation in populations of insects. The populations represented individ-
uals of single species, from single localities. There were many characters
which varied. Extreme wing lengths, for instance, varied between 10 and
180 micrometer units. This difference of 18 times probably represents as
extreme a linear variation as is known in any population of adults of any
species of plant or animal. But differences between the extreme frequencies
of sexual outlet in the human (Figures 32-33) range far beyond these
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
197
morphologic differences. Calculation will show that the difference between
one ejaculation in thirty years and mean frequencies of, say, 30 ejaculations
per week throughout the whole of thirty years, is a matter of 45,000 times.
This is the order of the variation which may occur between two individuals
who live in the same town and who are neighbors, meeting in the same
place of business, and coming together in common social activities. These
sexually extreme individuals may be of equal significance, or insignificance,
in the societal organization. They may be considered as very similar sorts
of persons by their close friends who do not know their sexual histories.
It has been notable throughout our field collections that a sample of as few
as a hundred histories is likely to show a considerable portion of this full
range of variation.
These differences in frequency of sexual activity are of great social
importance. The publicly pretended code of morals, our social organiza-
tion, our marriage customs, our sex laws, and our educational and reli-
gious systems are based upon an assumption that individuals are much
ahke sexually, and that it is an equally simple matter for all of them to
confine their behavior to the single pattern which the mores dictate. Even
in such an obviously sexual situation as marriage, there is little considera-
tion, under our present custom, of the possibility that the two persons who
have mated may be far apart in their sexual inclinations, backgrounds,
and capacities. Persons interested in sex education look for a program
which will satisfy children — meahing all the children — at some particular
educational level, overlooking the fact that one individual may be adapted
to a particular, perhaps relatively inactive, sort of sexual adjustment, while
the next would find it practically impossible to confine himself to such a
low level of activity. In institutional management, there has been almost
complete unawareness of these possible differences between inmates. The
problems of sexual adjustment for persons committed to penal, mental,
or other institutions, the problems of sexual adjustment for men and
women in the army, the navy, or other armed forces, are a thousand differ-
ent problems for any thousand of the persons involved.
While the curve shows three-quarters (77.7%) of the males with a range
of variation that lies between 1.0 and 6.5 per week, there is still nearly a
quarter (22.3%) of the males who fall into extreme ranges (total population,
U. S. Correction). There are, for instance, 7.6 per cent of all the males
whose outlets may average 7 or more per week for periods of at least five
years in some part of their lives. Daily and more than daily arousal and
sexual activity to the point of complete orgasm must occur among some
of the friends and acquaintances which any person has. When the data on
the female are subsequently published, they will show that there is even a
wider range of variation there, although a larger number of the females
are in the lower portion of the curve.
Individual Variation in Total Sexual Outlet
FRE-
QUENCIES
PER
WEEK
YOUNGER ages:
adolescent to 30
ALL ages:
adolescent to 85
Cases
Sample
Population
%
u. s.
Population
%
Cases
!
Sample
Population
/o
u. s.
Population
/o
0.0
232
2.0
1.7
291
2.1
1.3
192
1.7
1.2
260
1.8
1.3
0.5
1136
9.9
8.3
1491
10.6
12,1
1.0
1397
12.2
11.3
1852
13.2
14.8
1.5
1235
10.8
11.2
1579
11.2
11.4
2.0
1240
10.8
10.4
1606
11.4
13.3
2,5
1066
9.3
9.6
1299
9.2
9.6
3.0
979
8.5
7.6
1194
8.5
7.7
3.5
910
7.9
8.1
1049
7.4
6.2
4.0
622
8.5
5.2
717
5.1
4.3
4.5
455
4.0
4.1
529
3.8
3.1
5.0
411
3.6
3.5
446
3.2
2.3
5.5
267
2.3
2.2
298
2.1
1.7
6,0
249
2.2
2.5
279
2.0
2.3
6.5
158
1.4
1.5
169
1.2
1.0
7.0
189
1.6
1.9
208
1.5
1.2
7.5
122
1.1
1.2
127
0.9
0.7
8.0
99
0.9
1.4
105
0.7
0.7
8.5
65
0.6
0.7
69
0.5
0.4
9.0
33
0.3
0.2
44
0.3
0.2
9.5
40
0.3
0.3
46
0.3
0.3
10.0
68
0.6
0,8
71
0.5
0.6
11.0
61
0.5
0.9
67
0,5
0.5
12.0
43
0,4
0.5 •
49
0,3
0.3
13,0
30
0.3
0.6
39
0.3 i
0.4
14.0
31
0.3
0.5
36
0.3
0.4
15.0
25
0.2
0.4
33
! 0.2
0.3
16.0
19
0.2
0.3
23
0.2
0.5
17.0
18
0.2
0.4
20
! 0.1
0.2
18.0
10
0.1
0.1
12
0.1
0.1
19.0
10
0.1
0.2
12
0.1
0,1
20.0
9
0.1
0.2
11
0.1
0.2
21.0
5
—
0.2
6
0.1
0.1
22.0
8
0.1
0.1
10
0.1
‘ 0.1
23.0
6
—
0.1
6
24.0
2
—
—
2
25.0
6
—
0.1
6
—
0.1
26.0
4
—
0.2
1 5
—
0.1
27.0
3
—
0.1
3
28.0
0
0
—
0
0
29.+
12
0.1
0.2
14
0.1
0.1
Total
11467
100.0
100.0
14083
100.0
100.0
Mean
Median
2.88 0.027
2.14
3.27
2.74 0.024
1,99
2.34
Table 40. Individual variation in frequency of total sexual outlet
Raw data, based on the available sample, are corrected for a population of the same
age, marital status, and educational level as that shown for the total population in the
U. S. Census of 1940.
198
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
199
The possibility of any individual engaging in sexual activity at a rate
that is remarkably different from one’s own, is one of the most difficult
things for even professionally trained persons to understand. Meetings of
educators who are discussing sex instruction and policies to be followed in
the administration of educational institutions, may bring out extreme
differences of opinion which range from recommendations for the teaching
of complete abstinence to recommendations for frank acceptance of almost
any type of sexual activity. No other subject will start such open dissension
in a group, and it is difficult for an observer to comprehend how objective
reasoning can lead to such different conclusions among intelligent men and
women. If, however, one has the histories of the educators involved, it may
be found that there are persons in the group who are not ejaculating more
than once or twice a year, while there may be others in the same group
who are experiencing orgasm as often as ten or twenty times per week, and
regularly. There is, inevitably, some correlation between these rates and
the positions which these persons take in a public debate. On both sides
of the argument, the extreme individuals may be totally unaware of the
possibility of others in the group having histories that are so remote from
their own. In the same fashion, we have listened to discussions of juvenile
delinquency, of law enforcement, and of recommendations for legislative
action on the sex laws, knowing that the policies that ultimately come out
of such meetings would reflect the attitudes and sexual experience of the
most vocal members of the group, rather than an intelligently thought-out
program established on objectively accumulated data.
Even the scientific discussions of sex show little understanding of the
range of variation in human behavior. More often the conclusions are
limited by the personal experience of the author. Psychologic and psychia-
tric literature is loaded with terms which evaluate frequencies of sexual
outlet. But such designations as infantile, frigid, sexually under-developed,
under-active, excessively active, over-developed, over-sexed, hypersexual,
or sexually over-active, and the attempts to recognize such states as
nymphomania and satyriasis as discrete entities, can, in any objective
analysis, refer to nothing more than a position on a curve which is con-
tinuous. Normal and abnormal, one sometimes suspects, are terms which
a particular author employs with reference to his own position on that
curve.
The most significant thing about this curve (Figures 32, 33) is its con-
tinuity. It is not symmetrical, with a particular portion of the population
set oflF as “normal,” “modal,” “typical,” or discretely different. No
individual has a sexual frequency which differs in anything but a slight
degree from the frequencies of those placed next on the curve. Such a
continuous and widely spread series raises a question as to whether the
terms “normal” and “abnormal” belong in a scientific vocabulary. At
Figures 32 - 33 , Individual variation in frequency of total sexual outlet
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
201
the best, abnormal may designate certain individuals whose rates of activ-
ity are less frequent, or whose sources of sexual outlet are not as usual in
the population as a whole; but in that case, it is preferable to refer to such
persons as rare, rather than abnormal. Moreover, many items in human
sexual behavior which are labelled abnormal, or perversions, in textbooks,
prove, upon statistical examination, to occur in as many as 30 or 60 or 75
per cent of certain populations (see later chapters). It is difficult to main-
tain that such types of behavior are abnormal because they are rare.
The term “abnormal” is applied in medical pathology to conditions
which interfere with the physical well-being of a living body. In a social
sense, the term might apply to sexual activities which cause social malad-
justment. Such an application, however, involves subjective determinations
of what is good personal living, or good social adjustment; and these
things are not as readily determined as physiologic well-being in an organic
body. It is not possible to insist that afiy departure from the sexual mores,
or any participation in socially taboo activities, always, or even usually,
involves a neurosis or psychosis, for the case histories abundantly demon-
strate that most individuals who engage in taboo activities make satisfac-
tory social adjustments. There are, in actuality, few adult males who are
particularly disturbed over their sexual histories. Psychiatrists, clinical
psychologists, and others who deal with cases of maladjustment, some-
times come to feel that most people find difficulty in adjusting their sexual
lives ; but a clinic is no place to secure incidence figures. The incidence of
tuberculosis in a tuberculosis sanitarium is no measure of the incidence of
tuberculosis in the population as a whole; and the incidence of disturbance
over sexual activities, among the persons who come to a clinic, is no
measure of the frequency of similar disturbances outside of clinics. The
impression that such “sexual irregularities” as “excessive” masturbation,
pre-marital intercourse, responsibility for a pre-marital pregnancy, extra-
marital intercourse, mouth-genital contacts, homosexual activity, or ani-
mal intercourse, always produce psychoses and abnormal personalities
is based upon the fact that the persons who do go to professional sources
for advice are upset by these things.
It is unwarranted to believe that particular types of sexual behavior are
always expressions of psychoses or neuroses. In actuality, they are more
often expressions of what is biologically basic in mammalian and anthro-
poid behavior, and of a deliberate disregard for social convention. Many
of the socially and intellectually most significant persons in our histories,
successful scientists, educators, physicians, clergymen, business men, and
persons of high position in governmental affairs, have socially taboo items
in their sexual histories, and among them they have accepted nearly the
whole range of so-called sexual abnormahties. Among the socially most
successful -and personally best adjusted persons who have contributed to
202
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
the present study, there are some whose rates of outlet are as high as those
in any case labelled nymphomania or satyriasis in the literature, or recog-
nized as such in the clinic.
Clinical subjects who have such unusual items in their histories often do
present psychopathologies — ^that is why they have gone to the clinics. But
the presence of particular behavior, or the existence of a high rate, is not the
abnormality which needs explanation. The real clinical problem is the
discovery and treatment of the personality defects, the mental difficulties,
the compulsions, and the schizophrenic conflicts which lead particular
individuals to crack up whenever they depart from averages or socially
accepted custom, while millions of other persons embrace the very same
behavior, and may have as high rates of activity, without personal or
social disturbance. It has been too simple a solution to discover the sexual
items in a patient’s history, to consider them symptoms of a neurosis, and
to diagnose the disturbance as the outcome of the departure from the
established mores. It is much more difficult to discover the bases of the
unstable personalities that are upset by such sexual departures, and to
treat the basic defects rather than to patch up the particular issues over
which the disturbances occur. Clinicians would have more incentive for
using such an approach if they were better acquainted with the normal
frequencies of the so-called abnormal types of activity, and if, at least as
far as sex is concerned, they could acquire a wider acquaintance with the
sexual histories of well-adjusted individuals.
Most of the complications which are observable in sexual histories are
the result of society’s reactions when it obtains knowledge of an individ-
ual’s behavior, or the individual’s fear of how society would react if he
were discovered. In various societies, under various circumstances, and
(as we shall later show) even at various social levels of the population living
in a particular town, the sex mores are fundamentally different. The way in
which each group reacts to a particular sort of history determines the
“normality” or “abnormality” of the individual’s behavior — in that partic-
ular group (Benedict 1934). Whatever the moral interpretation (as in
Moore 1943), there is no scientific reason for considering particular types
of sexual activity as intrinsically, in their biologic origins, normal or abnor-
mal. Yet scientific classifications have been nearly identical with theologic
classifications and with the moral pronouncements of the English common
law of the fifteenth century. This, in turn, as far as sex is concerned, was
based on the medieval ecclesiastic law which was only a minor variant of
the tenets of ancient Greek and Roman cults, and of the Talmudic law
(Angus 1925, May 1931); Present-day legal determinations of sexual acts
which are acceptable, or “natural,” and those which are “contrary to
nature” are not based on data obtained from biologists, nor from nature
herself. On the contrary, the ancient codes have been accepted by laymen,
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
203
jurists, and scientists alike as the ultimate sources of moral evaluations, of
present-day legal procedure, and of the list of subjects that may go into a
textbook of abnormal psychology. In no other field of science have scien-
tists been satisfied to accept the biologic notions of ancient jurists and
theologians, or the analyses made by the mystics of two or three thousand
years ago. Either the ancient philosophers were remarkably well-trained
psychologists, or modern psychologists have contributed little in defining
abnormal sexual behavior.
The reactions of our social organization to these various types of
behavior are the things that need study and classification. The mores,
whether they concern food, clothing, sex, or religious rituals, originate
neither in accumulated experience nor in scientific examinations of objec-
tively gathered data. The sociologist and anthropologist find the origins
of such customs in ignorance and superstition, and in the attempt of each
group to set itself apart from its neighbors. Pyschologists have been too
much concerned with the individuals who depart from the group custom.
It would be more important to know why so many individuals conform
as they do to such ancient custom, and what psychology is involved in the
preservation of these customs by a society whose individual members
would, in most cases, not attempt to defend all of the specific items in that
custom. Too often the study of behavior has been little more than a ration-
alization of the mores masquerading xmder the guise of objective science.
While this problem will be m6t again in other places, the present dis-
cussion of frequencies of total sexual outlet provides a good opportunity
for understanding the futility of classifying individuals as normal or abnor-
mal, or well-adjusted or poorly adjusted, when in reahty they may be
nothing more than frequent or rare, or conformists or non-conformists
with the socially pretended custom.
FACTORS EFFECTING VARIATION
Morphologic differences between individuals are the product of both
hereditary and environmental factors. Differences in behavior, on the
other hand, are dependent not only upon hereditary morphology and upon
the direct effects of environment on that anatomy, but upon psychologic
conditioning and social pressures as well. Because of the larger number
of factors involved, variation in behavior is much greater than variation
in anatomic structures.
The most important biologic factors affecting the nature and frequency
of sexual response in the human animal are the hereditary forces which
account for the differences between male and female. Within either of these
sexes, heredity must also account for some of the variation in sensory
structures and in the mechanisms which are concerned with emotional
response; but there is little precise information on this point. Variation
204
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
within the lifetime of a single individual is effected by such biologic factors
as age, general metabolic level, nutrition (Miles 1919, Jackson 1925),
vitamins (Biskind and Falk 1943, Moore 1942), general health, changes in
neurologic conditions, and still other situations. Age is the one biologic
factor that most strongly affects variation in the sex life of an individual
and which, therefore, accounts for the differences between populations of
different age (Chapter 7). Sex hormones are the biologic factors with which
there has been the most experimentation. In general, an increased avail-
ability of male hormone (up to the point of its optimum effect) increases the
frequency of sexual activity (Hamilton 1937, Moore 1942, Pratt 1942,
Lisser and Curtis 1943, Heller, Nelson and Roth 1943). Less often noted
in the literature and less widely utilized for experimentation, thyroid
hormones produce, if anything, more marked results, and our histories
include some persons who have had the intensity of their sex drive and the
frequency of their activity considerably increased by the administration of
thyroid extracts. Since thyroid so directly affects the general metabolic
level, it is probable that its influence on sexual frequencies is by way of its
relation to metabolism in general rather than through any immediate
action of the hormone. The master gland of the hormonal system, the
pituitary, regulates both thyroid and sex glands and thus (probably in this
indirect fashion only) affects the sexual activity of the individual.
Psychologic conditioning accounts for a larger part of the variation in
behavior in a population. All living organisms, from the lowest to the
highest, are modified by the experiences through which they pass. This
modifiability is one of the intrinsic qualities of living protoplasm. In any
creature with a central nervous system which is as highly developed as that
found in the vertebrates, particularly in the primates, this conditioning
becomes a paramount factor in determining the animal’s behavior.
Whether an individual is located at some lower point or at a higher point
on the total curve of outlets depends in part upon the experience which he
has previously had and the incentive which that experience provides for
a repetition or avoidance of further activity. Whether an individual
depends upon masturbation or heterosexual intercourse for his pre-marital
outlet depends in part upon the early experience he happens to have had.
Whether exclusively heterosexual or exclusively homosexual patterns are
followed, or whether both heterosexual and homosexual outlets are
utilized in his history, depends in part upon the circumstance of early
experience.
A third group of factors effecting variation in human sexual behavior is
the sociologic group. As later chapters in this volume will show, the mores
are the prime forces which produce variation in the sources of sexual outlet
in different groups. Patterns of sexual behavior are, in an astonishingly
high percentage of the cases, merely reflections of the patterns of the partic-
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
205
ular social level to which an individual belongs. In most cases, the
individual rationalizes his particular pattern and thinks that he himself has
logically chosen the regimen which is most satisfactory, socially profitable,
or morally right; but mores which are many hundreds of years old are,
in reality, the sources of most of these decisions.
There are, then, a variety of factors which may modify the frequency
and sources of sexual activity within the lifetime of a single individual;
but within any limited period of time — ^within a five-year period, for in-
stance-changes are effected chiefly by physical health and by modifica-
tions of situations which affect the opportunity for sexual contact. Most
individuals maintain a surprisingly constant position on the outlet curve
for periods of several years, changing mostly because of advancing age.
LOW FREQUENCIES AND SUBLIMATION
It is not simple to determine the extent to which an individual’s total
outlet represents something less than the rate to which he would rise if
there were no restrictions on his behavior. In a few cases, however, it is
possible to make some analyses. The rates of unmarried males between the
ages of 16 and 20 average 3.35 (based on 2868 histories, corrected for the
U. S. Census distribution) while the rates for married males of the same
age group average 4.83 (Table 60). The difference of 1.5 ejaculations per
week is to a considerable extent dependent upon the social restrictions on
pre-marital activity (Chapter 8). k is probable that the biologic capacity
of the average younger male is even higher than 4.8 per week, for even in
marriage there is considerable interference with sexual performance.
Periods of menstruation and pregnancy cause interruption of activity.
Most males would have intercourse more frequently if their spouses were
more interested, if other occupations did not interfere, if business routines
that take precedence over intercourse did not leave one physically and
mentally fatigued by the time sexual contacts are available. The human
animal usually demands a certain privacy which is not always available
when intercourse or other outlets are most desired; society tries to restrict
all sexual activities to monogamous relations; and moral codes put a
taint on naany sorts of sexual gratification. It seems safe to assume that
daily orgasm would be within the capacity of the average human male,
and that the more than daily rates which have been observed for some pri-
mate species (Sokolowsky 1923, Bingham 1928, Yerkes and Elder 1936,
Carpenter 1942, Young and Orbison 1944), could be matched by a large
portion of the human population if sexual activity were unrestricted. The
males who are astounded to find that 7.6 per cent of the population does, in
actuahty, have daily or more than daily outlet are, in most cases, simply
unaware of their own capacities. Since this percentage of the males already
has daily rates, in spite of the restrictions on their behavior, it is probable
that such a percentage of the population would, under optimal conditions,
206
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
be involved in still more frequent activity during the first five or ten years of
their adolescent and adult lives.
In another study we will present data on the relation of sexual and
physical activity. There is no invariable correlation, and the list of top
athletes includes persons with both low and high rates of sexual outlet.
On the whole it is evident that general good health and, therefore, the
physical activity which engenders good health, may contribute to an in-
crease in the frequency of sexual performance. Only physical exercise which
is carried to the point of exhaustion interferes with sexual as well as other
sorts of reactions.
Sexual abstinence for short periods of time, such as a few days or weeks,
is of common occurrence; but average frequencies as low as once in two
weeks, or lower, occur in only 11.2 per cent of the males under 31 years of
age (Table 40). Average frequencies ranging between 0.0 and once in ten
weeks (for any five-year period under 31 years of age) occur in only about
2.9 per cent of the. population. There is a steady increase in the number of
low-rating males after age 35. The list may include some whose pruderies
led them to understate the frequency of their sexual activity; but this is
more likely to be true among the females, and it is probably not true of
more than an insignificantly small portion of the male population, for
most males are inclined to be ashamed of very low rates of activity. On
the other hand, the list of inactive males includes some persons of such
superior scientific and other professional training that there can be no
question that their statements were as complete and accurate as could be
made. The low-rating males have all sorts of educational, religious, and
social backgrounds (Table 41). Larger segments of the low-rating popula-
tion come, however, from persons with lower grade school education
(many of whom are of lower intellectual capacity and dull sexually as well
as mentally); from persons who are religiously most active (especially
devout Catholics and Orthodox Jews); and particularly from males who
are late in arriving at adolescence (Chapter 9).
An examination of these cases of low outlet should give some informa-
tion on the incidence of so-called sublimation. The concept, ascribed by
the psychoanalysts to Freud (Brill, in Freud 1938), implies that it is possible
for an individual to divert his sexual energies to such “higher levels” of
activity as art, literature, science, and other socially more acceptable
channels. The concept is, of course, much older than Freud. Its affinity to
Christian, Hebraic, Greek, and more ancient asceticism is betrayed by its
recognition of social values, and confirmed by the speed with which moral
leaders of all denominations have adopted the term to cover everything
that Freud originally intended, and abstinence, self-control, stern suppres-
sion, and the rest of the ascetic virtues as well. One can hardly object if a
supposedly scientific concept has been turned into a moral issue, when the
208
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
179 Males with Low Outlet
GROUP
POPULATION
IN TOTAL STUDY
LOW RATING
CASES
% OF
POPULATION
AGES INVOLVED
Adol.-15
4102
138
3.4
16-20
3836
80
2.1
21-25
2642
47
1.8
26-30
1405
25
1.8
31-35
950
22
2.3
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
Grades 0-4
173
19
11.0
5-8
729
45
6.2
High School 9-12
724
25
3.5
College 13-16
1413
43 ^
3.0
Professional 17 4-
1063
47
4.4
OCCUPATIONAL CLASS
1. Underworld
81
2
2.5
2. Day Laborers
708 '
44
6.2
3. Semi-skilled Laborers
839
54
6.4
4. Skilled Laborers
287
21
7.3
5. Lower White Collar
1116
41
1 3.7
6. Upper White Collar
1288
45
3.5
7. Professional
595
29
4.9
8. Business Executive
26
1
3.8
RELIGION
Protestant: Inactive
2310
89
3.9
Protestant : Active
834
51
6.1
Catholic: Inactive
303
9
3.0
Catholic: Active
173
13
7.5
Jewish: Inactive
436
10
2.3
Jewish: Active
64
6
9.4
Total: Inactive
3049
108
3.5
Total; Active
1071
70
6.5
AGE AT ONSET OF ADOLESCENCE
9-12
1252
25
2.0
13
1339
40
3,0
14
1093
74
6.8
15
281
19
6.8
164-
104
8
7.7
Table 41. Social backgrounds of low-rating males
Every age and every educational, reli^ous, and social background are represented.
Larger segments of the low-rating population come from poorly educated and religiously
devout persons, and from males who became adolescent at late ages.
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
209
(1) Among these 179 males with the lowest rates, there are a few in-
dividuals (9 males = 5.0%) who are in such poor health, or otherwise so
incapacitated by structural, hormonal, or other physical deficiencies, that
all heavy expenditures of energy are impossible or held at a minimum. At
ages over 45 there is a fair number of cases of impotency, and at younger
ages there are a few males (4 cases cited in the previous chapter) who have
been totally impotent throughout their fives for physical or physiologic
reasons. There are more cases of younger males who are impotent under
particular situations; but at ages under 36, neither erectal nor ejaculatory
impotence accounts for more than a few stray cases of low rates of outlet.
Other physical deficiencies are involved in the 9 cases which belong in this
fist.
(2) There is another group of males (at least 52.5% of the above tabula-
tion) who are apathetic. They never, at any time in their histories, have
given evidence that they were capable of anything except low rates of
activity. These are persons who would be described, figuratively, as "‘low
in sex drive.” Whether the factors are biologic, psychologic, or social, it
is certain that such persons exist. After these apathetic persons have had
orgasm, they may go for some days or weeks without further arousal.
There are few if any psychologic stimuli which will excite them, and even
when these males deliberately put themselves in erotic situations which
involve active petting and genital manipulation they may be unable to
respond more than once in sevei^l weeks. This situation is even more often
found among females, 30 per cent of whom are more or less sexually un-
responsive. Such fundamentally apathetic persons are the ones who are
most often moral (conforming with the mores), most insistent that it is a
simple matter to control sexual response, and most likely to offer them-
selves as examples of the possibility of the diversion of probably non-
existent sexual energies. But such inactivity is no more sublimation of sex
drive than blindness or deafness or other perceptive defects are sublimation
of those capacities.
There is an inclination among psychiatrists to consider all unresponding
individuals as inhibited, and there is a certain scepticism in the profession
of the existence of people who are basically low in capacity to respond.
This amounts to asserting that all people are more or less equal in their
sexual endowments, and ignores the existence of individual variation. No
one who knows how remarkably different individuals may be in mor-
phology, in physiologic reactions, and in other psychologic capacities,
could conceive of erotic capacities (of all things) that were basically uni-
form throughout a population. Considerable psychiatric therapy can be
wasted on persons (especially females) who are misjudged to be cases of
repression when, in actuality, at least some of them never were equipped
to respond erotically.
210
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
(3) In this list of relatively inactive males there are 35 cases (19.6%)
who were delayed in starting activity, but whose rates were abruptly and
materially increased as soon as they made their first socio-sexual contacts.
As their later performances demonstrated, their earlier rates were low only
because their capacities had not been awakened. Having once been con-
ditioned by sexual experience, these males subsequently found it difficult
to get along without regular sexual outlet. Such histories are not cases of
sublimation.
(4) There are many cases of males of proved sexual capacity who are
suddenly forced into relative inactivity by being deprived of opportunities
for outlet. Sometimes this results in nervous disturbance; but where the
individuals are effectively removed from sources of erotic arousal, most of
them are able to adjust to the lower rates. This is best illustrated by the
many hundreds of histories which we have from men who have been con-
fined to penal institutions, some of them for periods of as much as twenty
or twenty-five years. In a prison, there may be opportunity for such out-
lets as masturbation, nocturnal emission, the homosexual, or a stray
experience of some other sort; but the sum total of sexual activity is very
much below that found in similar groups outside of an institution. In a
short-time prison, the majority of the men do not accept homosexual
contacts, and there are a great many who, coming from a social level in
which masturbation is taboo (Chapter 10) and from a social level where
nocturnal emissions are at a minimum (Chapters 10, 15), may go for long
periods of months, or for a year or more, without ejaculation. A few of
these men are nervously disturbed as a result of their lack of outlet; but
most of them live comfortably enough, apparently because there is little
erotic arousal which needs to be relieved by orgasm. The men in such
institutions regularly insist that there is very little if any arousal from con-
versation, printed pictures, descriptions in literature, or anything short of
actual contact with a sexual partner. Educated persons are commonly
misled by the constant discussion of sex for which prisons, armies, factories,
and other places of partial restraint are notorious. Academically trained
students are too prone to interpret such situations in terms of their own,
highly conditioned, responses. For the more poorly educated portion of the
population, however, there is a minimum of erotic fantasy, and 91.5 per
cent of all of those committed to penal institutions never go beyond high
school in their education (U. S. Census 1940). In consequence, these
prison males do not illustrate sublimation, for they have little or no aroused
sexual energy which needs dissipation. This is such a special situation that
prison cases are not included in the above list of low-rating cases, and fre-
quencies in prison have not entered into any of the calculations of the rates
of outlet in the present volume.
There are, however, males who represent cases of deprivation under
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
211
more usual situations, such as divorce, the illness of the wife, and other
causes; and these constitute 8.3 per cent of the low-rating list given above,
(5) Finally there are timid or inhibited individuals in this low-rating list,
who are afraid of approaching other persons for sexual relations, afraid
of condemnation were they to engage in such socially taboo behavior as
masturbation, pre-marital intercourse, or the homosexual; or afraid of
their own self condemnation if they were to engage in almost any sort of
sexual activity. This accQjints_for more than half of the low-rating list
(58.1%). Some of these individuals become paranoid in their fear of moral
transgression, or its outcome. There ar,e 9 cases of attempted suicide among
the histories of males who were trying tq^uppress some aspect of their
sexual activity. These individuals readily acquire and accept every super-
stitious tale concerning the consequences of masturbation; ascribe every
pimple and stomach ache, their limitations in height and their failures in
school or business to their occasional departures from the moral code; and
seek religious confession, penance, and introverted solitude as means of
avoiding further sin. Many of these individuals in actuality reduce the
frequencies of their orgasms considerably below the level of the rest of the
population.
If they are better educated persons, and especially if they have some
command of psychology, these inhibited persons rationalize more adroitly,
admit that masturbation does no physical harm, but reason that it is bad
to continue a habit that may ^subsequently make one unfit for normal
marital relations, decide that pre-marital intercourse similarly unfits one
for making satisfactory sexual adjustments in marriage, that the homo-
sexual is a biologic abnormaUty, and that extra-marital intercourse
inevitably destroys homes. Even among scientifically trained persons, these
propositions are offered as excuses for their sexual inactivity. Of 58 male
psychologists who have contributed histories to the present study, 57 have
defended one or more of these theses, in spite of the fact that no one of
these conclusions has ever been justified by objective data that would
satisfy scientists in any field that did not have a moral (traditional) impli-
cation. Out of 74 male psychiatrists who have contributed, 70 defend
one or more of these same prejudices. These are all rationalizations,
clutched at in support of a sexual suppression that is too often mistaken
for sublimation.
Recently we have secured histories from a segregated group of males,
a high percentage of whom are sexually restrained. This has provided an
unusual opportunity to see the results of suppression on a large scale. The
group is not at all typical of the American population as a whole. It is
drawn largely (82.8%) from males in their twenties (Table 42), almost
wholly from college trained (90.3%) and white collar levels (93.3%), and
almost wholly from Protestant religious groups (96.3%), with 43.3 per cent
212
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
of the group actively religious, which is about double the number of actively
religious persons in the total population on which the present study is
based. The mean frequencies of total outlet of the segregated group, both
in the single and the married histories, are between a half and two-thirds
of the frequencies for corresponding age groups in the total population.
The incidences of masturbation and of homosexual contacts in the group
are almost identical with those found in the total population, but the
incidence of pre-marital intercourse is definitely less (74% of the figure for
the total population). The group has been honored by several religious
organizations for its ideahsm and its refusal to allow any interference with
OUTLET
CASES IN
RESTRAINED
GROUP
A Restrained Group of 134 Males
Compared with U. S. Population
restrained group
u. s. population
Total outlet
Mean frequency
Mean frequency
Single males, at age:
Adol.-15
130
2.26
3.17
16-20
, 132
2.11
3.30
21-25
115
1.68
3.04
26-30
36
1.65
2.94
Married males, at age:
21-25
22
3.10
4.14
26-30
24
• 2.58
3.51
Accumulative
Accumulative
incidence
incidence
Masturbation
124
%
92.5
%
93.0
Pre-marital intercourse
60
44.8
^ 85.0
Homosexual
44
32.8
35.0
Table 42. Sexual outlet in a restrained group of males
Compared with the U. S. population of same age and marital status.
its ideals. Many of these males are belligerently defensive of their sexual
philosophy. Some of them are vociferous in claiming that they are perfect
examples of sublimation, and many outsiders look on the group as sexually
sublimated. However, several of the members of the group were receiving
psychiatric attention at the time of our interviews, and several psychiatrists
have reached the conclusion that a high percentage of the whole group is
neurotic.
If then, from the list of low-rating males, one removes those who are
physically incapacitated, natively low in sexual drive, sexually unawakened
in their younger years, separated from their usual sources of sexual stimu-
lation, or timid and upset by their suppressions, there are simply no cases
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
213
which remain as clear-cut examples of sublimation. Whether there is
partial sublimation among individuals with higher rates of outlet, it would
be much harder to determine. Whether there is more real sublimation
among certain groups, as among celibate priests, is a matter that cannot be
known until we have an adequate sample of histories from such groups.
Certain it is that among the many males who have contributed to the present
sample, sublimation is so subtle, or so rare, as to constitute an academic
possibility rather than a demonstrated actuality. In view of the widespread
and easy acceptance of the theory, and the efforts that such a large propor-
tion of the population has made to achieve this goal, one might have
expected better evidence of its existence, at least among the sexually least
active 5 per cent of the males in the population.
mCH FREQUENCIES OF OUTLET
Since most people have only average rates of sexual outlet, many of
them will question the accuracy of the data on persons with high frequen-
cies. Pearl, for instance (1925), considered high frequencies as “extremely
rare,” although he emphasized the fact that “they do occur often enough
to show that apparently there really does exist a small but dejSnite ‘sexual
athlete’ class of men, of which Casanova may be regarded as the classic
prototype in literature.” However, our large sample shows that, far from
being rare, individuals with frequencies of 7 or more per week constitute a
not inconsiderable segment (7,^) of any population.
There are high-rating persons of every sort, including some who are
scientifically trained, and other reliable individuals whose records cannot
be doubted. This high-rating population is described in Table 43. In each
age group under 30, there are more than four times as many males as in
any group over 50. More or less equal percentages of the high-rating males
come from single, married, and previously married groups. Every age,
educational, and social group is included. It is important to realize that an
individual may be very active sexually, and of considerable significance
socially. All religious groups, Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, are duly
represented by both their inactive and devout members. Nearly half
(49,4%) of all the underworld males who have contributed to this study^
appear in this high-rating group, and this is further evidence for believing
that most individuals could be much more active sexually if they were as
unrestrained as the group that openly and regularly defies the law and the
social convention. Fewer high-rating males come from the college level,
but a somewhat larger number comes from the group that has professional
training. Upper white-collar classes are rather less often represented. The
boys who are earliest adolescent, by age twelve at the latest, are the ones
who most often have the highest rates of outlet in the later years of their
lives.
462 High-Rating Males
GROUP
POPULAT.
IN TOTAL
STUDY
OUTLETS
7-13 PER WK.
OUTLETS
14-20 PER WK.
OUTLETS
21 + PER WK
TOTAL WITH
HIGH RATES
Cases
%
Cases
%
Cases
0/
/ 0
Cases
%
AGES INVOLVED
Adol.-15
4102
224
5.5
45
1.1
13
0.3
282
6.9
16^20
3836
209
5.4
45
1.2
17
0 4
271
7.1
21-25
2642
148
5.6
33
1.3
16
0.6
197
7.5
26-30
1405
76
5.4
21
1.5
10
0.7
107
7.6
31-35
950
27
2.8
12
1.3
6
0.6
45
4.7
36-40
690
16
2.3
6
0.9
4
0.6
26
3.8
41-45
473
9
1.9
6
1.3
0
15
3.2
46-50
320
9
2.8
3
0.9
0
12
3.8
51-55
206
3
1.5
1
0.5
0
4
1.9
56-60
117
2
1 1.7
0
0
2
1.7
61 +
134
2
1.5
0
0
■ 2
1.5
MARITAL STATUS
Single ,
8159
545
6.7
113
1.4
35
0.4
693
: 8.5
Married
2665
179
6.7
56
2.1
30
1.1
265
! 9.9
Post-Marital
754
45
6.0
14
1.9
8
1.1
67
8.9
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL
Grades 0-4
173
17
9.8 i
10
5.8
3
1.7
19
11.0
5-8
729
84
11.5
33
4.5
11
1.5
109
15.0
H. S. 9-12
724
88
12 2
19
2.6
9
1.2
99
13.7
College 13-16
1413
121
8.6
14
1.0
4
0.3
126
8.9
Professional 17+
1063
100
9.4
11
1.0 :
6
0 6
109
10.3
OCCUPATIONAL CLASS
1. Underworld
81
31
38.3
15
18.5
7
8.6
40
49.4
2. Day Laborers
708
87
12.3
32
4.5
12 '
1.7
109
15.4
3. Semi-skilled
839
102
12.2
46
5.5
18
2.2
135
16.1
4. Skilled La-
•
borers
287
34
11.8
8
2.8
0
35
12.2
5. Lower White
Collar
1116
GO
o
9.7
18
1.6
7
0.6
119
10.7
6. Upper White
Collar
1288
106
8.2
15
1.2
6
0.5
115
8.9
7. Professional
595
72
12.1
7
1.2
5 :
0.8
74
12.4
AGE, ONSET ADOL.
9-10
91
13
14.3
1
1.1
1
1.1
13
14.3
11-12
1161
147
12.7
43
3.7
16 :
1.4
175
15.1
13
1339
117
8.7
23
1.7
6
0.4
131
9.8
14
1093
94
8.6
17
1.6
9
0.8
103
9.4
15
281
30
10.7
2
0.7
1
0.4
31
11.0
16+
104
7
6.7
1
1,0
0
0.0 i
8 1
7.7
RELIGION
Protestant, Inac-
tive
2310
242
10.5
54
2.3
20
0.9
271
11.7
Protestant, Active
834
54
6.5
12
1.4
3
0.4
62
7.4
Catholic, Inactive
303
54
17.8
11
3.6
5
1.7
62
20.5
Catholic, Active
173
10
5.8
4
2.3
0
0.0
14
8.1
Jewish, Inactive
436
50
11.5
6
1.4
5
1.1
53
12.2
Total Inactive
3049
346
11.3
71
2.3
30
1.0
386
12.7
Total Active
1007
64
6.0
16
1.5
3
0.3
76
7,1
Table 43. Social backgrounds of high-rating males
Every age and every educational, religious, and social background are represented. Higher
percentages come from younger age groups, from religiously less active groups, and from
the underworld.
214
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
215
In explanation of these high rates of outlet, it is to be noted that it is a
common pattern for many persons to engage in intercourse every night
or practically every night in the week; and there are many married persons,
especially at lower social levels, who have intercourse quite regularly both
in the evening upon retiring and in the morning upon awakening. Where
the occupation allows the male spouse to return home at noon, contacts
may also occur at that hour of the day and, consequently, there is a regular
outlet of fourteen to twenty-one times per week. In the same fashion,
masturbation, the homosexual, and still other sorts of sexual activities may
acquire daily or more than daily frequencies.
An even larger portion of this high-rating group secures its outlet in
multiple ejaculations during a limited number of sexual contacts. The
existence of multiple orgasm in the pre-adolescent male has been discussed
in Chapter 5. A similar situation occurs, although less frequently, in the
adult (Table 48, Figure 36). Most males occasionally ejaculate more than
once; but there are males who regularly do so, practically every time there
is a socio-sexual contact. Of the white males who have contributed to the
present study and who have had experience in intercourse, 380 have had a
history of regular, multiple ejaculation at some period in adolescence or in
adult years. Sometimes these ejaculations, totaling two or three or more,
are spread over several hours in a single evening, with more or less con-
tinuous sex play; but in a fair number of cases it is habitual for a male to
ejaculate two or more times in gontinuous intercourse and while maintain-
ing a continuous erection (it is mentioned in Kahn 1939:110), Some
physiologists have questioned the possibility of such a performance. Since
multiple ejaculation in the male depends upon glandular secretion, there
are complications which are not involved in the female, where multiple
orgasm is better known. Nevertheless, scepticism over the possibility of
repeated response in the male merely emphasizes the incapacity of even
scientifically trained persons to comprehend that others may be made
differently from themselves. Both the testimony of the performing hus-
bands and the collaborative record obtained from their wives or other
female partners, leave no doubt that multiple orgasm, usually with ejacula-
tion, is the regular routine in a fair number of cases. Data from males with
homosexual experience indicate that in such relations it is not at all infre-
quent for a younger male to proceed to a second or a third orgasm in a
matter of five or ten minutes. Most of these multiple climaces occur in
younger males, but not all of them do so, as the age distribution in Table
48 will show. Very few adult males are able to reach more than four or five
climaces in any limited period of time; an occasional teen-age boy will
reach six or more; and a quarter of the pre-adolescents for whom we have
any record of orgasm were able to go beyond five, and in some cases to as
many as ten, twenty, or more in a few hours’ time (Table 33). Wherever
there is multiple orgasm, the total frequencies of outlet are multiplied, and
216
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
these cases account for nearly 30 per cent of the population which lies on
the higher portions of the curve.
Among the more active cases in our histories, there are male prostitutes
whose capacity to perform may determine the level of their income. Male
prostitutes may be involved in heterosexual prostitution, which is rare, or
in homosexual prostitution, which is much more frequent. In male prosti-
tution, the prostitute usually experiences orgasm. This is in contrast
to the situation among female prostitutes, most of whom go into prostitu-
tion for the sake of the money that may be earned. In most cases the
female prostitute is not aroused and does not experience orgasm during a
SIX MOST ACTIVE MALES
Maximum frequencies during 30 continuous years, in best authenticated cases
Marital status during maximum activity
Married (4), single (2)
Religion
Active Protestant (1), inactive Protestant (4), inactive Jewish (1)
Educational level in years
3, 16, 17, 20 (3 cases)
Occupations
WPA and labor, physician (2), scientific worker, educator, lawyer
Ages at onset of adolescence
11 (2 cases), 12, 13 (2 cases), 14
30-year period involved
11-^0 (2 cases), 12-41, 13-42, 16-45, 21-50
Years of maximum frequency
At ages 11-15, 12-15, 13-15, 21-25, 36-40 (leases)
Average rates per week for 30-year period
10.6, 11.7, 13.6, 14.0, 17.8, 33.1
Range in rate during 30-year period
5.3 to 19.6, 11.6 to 31.6, 9.0 to 13.0, 14.7 to 15.7, 10.0 to 21.5, 25.6 to 37.8
Multiple ejaculation
1-2, 2 when younger, 2-5, 3 and 4, in each coitus. Two cases never multiple
Chief sources of outlet
Masturbation, marital intercourse, and extra-marital intercourse
Masturbation, marital intercourse, and homosexual contacts
Masturbation and extra-marital intercourse
Masturbation and pre-marital intercourse
Masturbation and homosexual outlets
Marital intercourse only
professional contact. In male prostitution, on the contrary, in some of the
techniques that are employed, capacity to achieve erection and ejaculate is a
requisite part of the arrangement. Some male prostitutes ejaculate five, six,
or more times per day with regularity over long periods of years. While the
amount of semen per ejaculation is thereby reduced, there is usually
emission, even with such frequent orgasms. The validity of the data on
this point depends not only upon the records of the several hundred male
prostitutes who have contributed their histories, but also upon the obser-
vations of persons who have had contact with them. In a few cases, there
total sexual outlet
217
are records made by persons who have observed the actual performance of
particular male prostitutes from hour to hour, over periods of time, and
there is no question that there is frequent arousal and actual ejaculation
of semen five or more times per day in some of these cases. One such set
of observations concerns a 39-year-old Negro male who had averaged
more than three per day from 13 to 39 years of age, and at the latter age
was still capable of 6 to 8 ejaculations when the occa^sion demanded. The
average frequencies of such an individual carry the curve of total sexual
outlet to unusually high points.
The six white males with the highest long-time averages for a continuous
30-year period deserve further examination, although it should be under-
stood that there is a continuous list of others who grade into these highest
cases. The males included in this list all went to considerable pains to give
details for each of the periods involved; one is a lawyer, one is an educator,
three of them are scientifically trained persons, two of whom had kept
diaries or other records; and we have had such extended contact with
three of these individuals that we feel considerable reliance can be placed
on their data. The six cases are strikingly different in regard to ages
involved, in the variability of the rate during the 30-year period, and in the
sources of most of the sexual outlet.
Outside of penal institutions and cloistered halls, there are ever-present
stimuli to heterosexual response. For the educated portion of the male
population, for instance, there? are persons of the opposite sex, female
wearing apparel which emphasizes and suggests sexual situations, the
constant portrayal of these things in magazines, in moving pictures, on
billboards, in decorative art, in the plots of printed fiction and stage
drama, in the emphasis given to radio performances, in advertisements
everywhere, in most poetry and songs, and, more subtly but even more
effectively, in all those forms and ceremonies which are accepted as
courtesies between the sexes, and in the social traditions connected with
marriage. There is, in consequence, constant arousal and regular sexual
activity in most males, particularly younger males who are conditioned by
any experience, or by the vicariously shared experiences of their fellows.
While all males must have known of the regularity of sexual activity in
their own histories, the significance of the fact for the population as a
whole has never been fully appreciated. The assumption that the unmarried
male has only occasional outlet, or that he may go for long periods of time
without any sexual activity, is not in accord with the fact. The assumption
that there can be such sublimation of erotic impulse as to allow an appre-
ciable number of males to get along for considerable periods of time with-
out sexual activity is not yet substantiated by specific data. For most males,
whether single or married, there are ever-present erotic stimuli, and sexual
response is regular and high.
Chapter 7
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
In physiology, endocrinology, genetics, and still other fields, biologists
often go to considerable pains to restrict their experimental material to
animals of particular species, to particular age groups, and to individuals
that are reared on a uniform diet and kept under strictly controlled labora-
tory conditions. Different hereditary strains of a single species may give
different results in a physiologic experiment; and, in many laboratories,
stocks are restricted to the progeny of particular pairs of pedigreed ances-
tors. In studies of human behavior, there is even more reason for confining
generalizations to homogeneous populations, for the factors that affect
behavior are more abundant than those that affect simpler biologic charac-
ters, and there are, in consequence, more kinds of populations to be
reckoned with. Nevertheless, restrictions of psychologic and sociologic
studies to clearly defined groups have rarely been observed (McNemar
1940), perhaps because we have not, heretofore, known what things effect
variability in a human population and how important they are in deter-
mining what people do. ^
There are at least eleven factors which are of primary importance in
determining the frequency and sources of human sexual outlet. They are
sex, race, age, age at onset of adolescence, marital status, educational
level, the subject’s occupational class, the parental occupational class,
rural-urban backgrounds, religious affliations, and the extent of the
subject’s devotion to religious affairs. The effects of these factors on the
sexual histories of white males are discussed in the present volume. In
view of the conclusions that these analyses now afford, it becomes apparent
that generalizations concerning any aspect of human sexual behavior are
uninterpretable unless they are limited to populations which are clearly
defined in regard to the more important of the eleven items listed above.
In the sexual history of the male, there is no other single factor which
affects frequency of outlet as much as age. Age affects the source of sexual
outlet only indirectly, by way of its relation to marital status, to the avail-
ability of social contacts, to the liability to physical fatigue, and to the
psychologic fatigue that comes as a result of the repetition of a particular
sort of activity. But age more directly affects frequency of outlet. Age is so
important that its effects are usually evident, whatever the marital status,
the educational level, the religious background, or the other factors which
218
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET 219
enter the picture. It is logical, therefore, to begin the present analyses with
a consideration of this factor.
ADOLESCENT SEXUAL ACTIVITY
As we have previously indicated (Chapter 5), there is sexual activity in
the pre-adolescent male which may involve definite erotic arousal and
actual orgasm; but the onset of regular sexual performance is usually
coincidental with the onset of adolescence. Throughout the remainder of
this volume, descriptions of sexual activity will apply to age periods that
begin with adolescence and which extend, in the first instance, through
15 years of age, and which are five year periods from that point through
the remainder of the individual’s history.
Over 95 per cent of the adolescent males are regularly active by 15 years
of age (Table 44). Over 99 per cent of the adolescent and older males are
active throughout the whole period from 16 to 45. In those 30 years, only
1 or 2 per cent of the male population is without regular and usually fre-
quent outlet. After 45 there is a gradual but distinct drop in the number of
active cases. These generalizations apply to all white males, whether single
or married, and whatever their educational level or social background.
Maximum Activity. The maximum sexual frequencies (total outlet) occur
in the teens. Frequencies then drop gradually but steadily into old age
(Table 44, Figure 34). Considering the active, single males in the popula-
tion, the maximum mean frequencies are almost 3.4 per week (calculated
for the U. S. population), which is almost exactly every other day in the
week, month, or year (Tables 45, 60, Figures 50-52). This rate is reached
between adolescence and 20 years of age.
The means for the married males begin at their highest point, 4.8 per
week, between 16 and 20 (Tables 45, 60, Figures 50-52). Few males are
married prior to 16, and there is not enough material to calculate statisti-
cally significant averages for any married group prior to that age. It is
probable that in a population which married at an earlier age, the highest
frequency on the curve would come in the earlier adolescent group ; but,
in our society as it is, the high point of sexual performance is, in actuality,
somewhere around 16 or 17 years of age. It is not later. The data which
have already been given on the sexual capacity of the pre-adolescent boy
(Chapter 5) indicate that the peak of capacity occurs in the fast-growing
years prior to adolescence; but the peak of actual performance is in the
middle or later teens.
The earliest serious attempt to determine the age of maximum sexual
activity, and the effect of age on sexual performance in the human male,
was made by Pearl (1925). For his study, he had data from 213 men (aver-
age age 64.53 years) who felt they could recall the frequencies of marital
intercourse in their earher histories. The point of maximum sexual activity
220
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet: Frequency Per Week
AGE
GROUP
CASES
TOTAL SAMPLE POPULATION
ACTIVE IN SAMPLE
POPULATION
u. s,
POPULATION
Range
(minus 1)
Mean
Me-
dian
%0f
Total
Mean
Me-
dian
Mean:
Total
Popul.
Mean:
Active
Popul.
Adol.
3905
0.0-29-j-
2.86=i=
2.11
95.1
3.00=1=
2.26
3.17
3.36
-15
0.05
0.05
16-20
3750
0.0-29-1-
2.87 =i=
2.17
99.3
2.89=1=
2.19
3.32
3.37
0.05
0.05
21-25
2502
0.0-29+
2,85±
2.10
99.6
2.86=1=
2.11
3.35
3.40
0.06
0.06
26-30
1310
0.0-29+
3.01 =i=
2.24
99.5
3.03=1=
2.25
3.35
3.38
0.09
0.09
31-35
879
0.0-29+
2.64=b
1.91
99.7
2.65=1=
1.92
2.89
2.90
0.10
0.10
36-40
628
0.0-22.0
2,36=1=
1.73
99.5
2.37=1=
1.73
2.36
2.36
0.10
0.10
41-45
440
0.0-15.0
1.98=i=
1.41
99.1
2.00=t:
1.42
1.96*
1.98*
0.11
0 11
46-50
285
0.0-12.0
1.78=1=
1.10
97.5
1.82=1=
1.15
1.75*
1.78*
0.12
0.12
51-55
173
0.0-10.0
1.50=1=
0.90
96^0
1.57=1=
0.96
0.14
0.14
56-60
106
0. 0-9.0
1.20=1=
0.73
95.3
1.26=t
0.79
0.15
0.15
61-65
58
0. 0-4.0
0.84=t:
0.52
81.0
1.04=t=
0.71
0.16
0.19
66-70
30
0. 0-3.0
0,65=1=
0.30
73.3
0.88=1=
0.48
0.24
0.31
71-75
12
0.0-0. 5
0.13=1=
0.00
41.7
0.30=1=
0.30
0.07
0.14
76-80
4
0.0-
0.01=1=
0.00
25.0
0.05
0.10
scant
0.01
81-85
2
0.0
0.00
0.00
0.0
0.00
0.00
Total
14084
0.0-29+
2.74±
0.02
1.99
91,9
2.80=±=
0.02
2.04
AdoL
-30
11467
0.0-29+
2.88=1=
0.03
2.14
98.0
2.94=1=
0.03
2.20
Table 44. Total sexual outlet in relation to advancing age
These data are based on the total population, including single, married, and pre-
viously married groups. For each group calculated separately, see Table 60. Data for
the U. S. population are based on a theoretic group with the marital status and edu-
cational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. ^Starred items are corrected for
marital status only.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
221
for this population was located in the 30-39 year period. For the younger
ages, Pearl recorded definitely lower frequencies; but he concluded, as we
have with our own data, that “the low frequency exhibited in this [younger]
age period is in part and probably mainly an expression of an essentially
social factor — lack of opportunity — rather than of anything physiological.”
Of the men who were married in their twenties, 67 essayed to recall fre-
quencies in that period; and 9 of the men who were married in their teens
supplied data for that age. On these limited bases, Pearl concluded that
“with approximate equality of opportunity at the different ages the peak of
activity is in the 20-29 decade and that thereafter there is a steady decline” ;
but after inspecting the curve, he theoretically adds that “with unrestricted
I I I - I - I . - I I I - I ^ I 1
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -50 -65 -70 -75 -50 -85
AGE GROUPS
Figure 34. Frequency of total outlet in relation to age
Based on total population, including single, married, and previously married groups.
Broken lines represent raw data; the solid black line represents the mean corrected for
the U. S. Census distribution.
legitimate opportunity the peak of sex activity is prior to age 20.” Our own
abundant data push the peak of the curve back, as Pearl predicted, into
the late teens. Unfortunately, the conclusions which are more often quoted
from the Pearl study are those based on his total population, with its
maximal frequency between 30 and 39 years; whereas the curve which he
derived from the smaller sample of married males, and his prediction that
the maximum activity occurs before the twenties, prove to be the more
correct.
Social Significance. The identification of the sexually most active period
as late adolescence will come as a surprise to most persons. General opinion
would probably have placed it in the middle twenties or later. Certainly the
222
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
average college student and the town boy of corresponding age will be
startled to learn that their younger brothers who are still in high school
surpass them in capacity and ofttimes in performance. By law, society
provides a source of regular sexual outlet in marriage, in part because it
recognizes the sexual need of the older male; but it fails to recognize that
the teen-age boys are potentially more capable and often more active than
their 35-year old fathers. Even among physicians and biologists, there has
been . a general opinion that sexual capacity develops gradually in early
adolescence, reaches its maximum in the thirties or forties (the ‘"prime of
life”)j passes a peak somewhere in a period which is considered a male
climacteric, and drops abruptly into the inactivity and complete impotence
of old age. It so happens that much of this picture is correct for the female,
but it is certainly not the pattern in the male. The preoccupation of so many
of the previous sex studies with the female has too often led to inter-
pretation of the male by analogy, rather than by way of data taken directly
from him.
This considerable activity and greater potentiality of the adolescent
male pose a number of sociologic problems. In the normal course of events,
the primitive human animal must have started his sexual activities with
unrestrained pre-adolescent sex play, and begun regular intercourse well
before the onset of adolescence. This is still the case in the other anthro-
poids (Hamilton 1914, Kempf 1917, Bingham 1928, Nowlis 1941), in some
of the so-called primitive human societies which have not acquired particu-
lar sex taboos (Malinowski 1929, Ford 1945), and among such of the
children in our society as escape the restrictions of social conventions
(Chapter 5). The near-universality of adolescent sexual activity in our own
Western European civilization down through the eighteenth century is
poorly understood by those who have not made a study of earlier litera-
ture; but there is every indication in that literature, both sober and erotic,
that the high capacity of the younger male was recognized and rather
widely accepted until near the Victorian day in England. The problem of
sexual adjustment for the younger male is one which has become especially
aggravated during the last hundred years, and then primarily in England
and in America, under an increasing moral suppression which has coincided
with an increasing delay in the age of marriage. This has resulted in an
intensification of the struggle between the boy’s biologic capacity and the
sanctions imposed by the older male who, to put it objectively, is no longer
hard-pressed to find a legalized source of sexual contact commensurate
with his reduced demand for outlet.
The fact that the unmarried male still manages to find an outlet of 3.4
per week demonstrates the failure of the attempt to impose complete
abstinence upon him. The sources of this outlet must be a matter of
bewilderment to those who have supposed that most males remained
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
223
continent until marriage. Nocturnal emissions do not provide any con-
siderable portion of the orgasms (Chapter 15), in spite of the fact that
many persons have wished that to be the case. Masturbation is a more
frequent outlet among the upper social level males where, during the last
two or three decades, it has been allowed as a not too immoral substitute
for pre-marital intercourse; but most of the less-educated 85 per cent of the
population still consider masturbation neither moral nor normal For the
mass of the unmarried boys, intercourse still provides the chief sexual
activity (Chapter 10). This means that the majority of the males in the
sexually most potential and most active period of their lives have to accept
clandestine or illegal outlets, or become involved in psychologic conflicts
in attempting to adjust to reduced outlets. With the data now available,
biologists, psychologists, physicians, psychiatrists, and sociologists should
be enabled to make better analyses of the problem which has heretofore
been imposed on this unmarried male in his middle and late teens, and
in his twenties.
The situation is complicated by the fact that the average adolescent girl
gets along well enough with a fifth as much sexual activity as the adoles-
cent boy, and the frequency of outlet of the female in her twenties and
early thirties is still below that of the average adolescent male. As mothers,
as school teachers, and as voting citizens, women are primarily responsible
for the care of these boys ; and, to a large degree, they are the ones who
control moral codes, schedules for sex education, campaigns for law en-
forcement, and programs for combating what is called juvenile delin-
quency. It is obviously impossible for a majority of these women to under-
stand the problem that the boy faces in being constantly aroused and
regularly involved with his normal biologic reactions.
The mean rate of outlet for the women who are young mothers and high
school teachers lies between 0.7 and 2.1 per week (as indicated by pre-
liminary calculations from our unpublished material on the female).
Many of these women, including some high school biology teachers,
believe that the ninth or tenth grade boy is still too young to receive any
sex instruction when, in actuality, he has a higher rate of outlet and has
already had a wider variety of sexual experience than most of his female
teachers ever will have. Whether there should be sex instruction, and what
sort of instruction it should be, are problems that lie outside the scope of
an objective scientific study; but it is obvious that the development of any
curriculum that faces the fact will be a much more complex undertaking
than has been realized by those who think of the adolescent boy as a
beginner, relatively inactive, and quite capable of ignoring his sexual
development.
Institutional Problems. The legal approach to this problem is, as usual,
even less realistic. By making illegal aU pre-marital sexual activities except
224
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
nocturnal emissions and solitary masturbation, English and American
law forces most boys, as indicated above, into illicit activity. The chief
exceptions are largely in that group that goes on to college, and which,
coincidentally, accepts masturbation as a chief source of outlet. Precise
incidence figures for the various types of sexual behavior which are illegal
are given in later chapters of the present volume. On a specific calculation
of our data, it may be stated that at least 85 per cent of the younger male
population could be convicted as sex offenders if law enforcement officials
were as efficient as most people expect them to be. The stray boy who is
caught and brought before a court may not be different from most of his
fellows, but the public, not knowing of the near universality of adolescent
sexual activity, heaps the penalty for the whole group upon the shoulders
of the one boy who happens to be apprehended. This situation presents a
considerable dilemma for law enforcement officials and for students of the
social organization as a whole.
The problem of sexual adjustment for a younger male who is confined
to a mental, penal, or other sort of institution is even more difficult than
the problem of the boy who lives outside in society. Administrators who
have these younger males in their care are generally bewildered and at a
loss to know how to handle their sexual problems. In many cases, the
situation is simply tolerated or ignored, and the administrator would pre-
fer not to be aware of the actualities. For this, many people would con-
demn him; but the problem in an institution for teen-age boys is far more
complex than the public or the administration or scientific students have
realized. It is obvious that lifetime patterns of sexual behavior are greatly
affected by the experiences of adolescence, not only because they are the
initial experiences, but because they occur during the age of greatest activ-
ity and during the time of the maximum physical capacity of the male.
This is the period in which the boy’s abilities to make social adjustments,
to develop any sort of socio-sexual contacts, and to solve the issues of a
heterosexual-homosexual balance, are most involved. Since younger boys
have not acquired all of the social traditions and taboos on sex, they are
more impressionable, more liable to react de novo to any and every situation
that they meet. If these adolescent years are spent in an institution where
there is little or no opportunity for the boy to develop his individuality,
where there is essentially no privacy at any time in the day, and where all
his companions are other males, his sexual life is very likely to become
permanently stamped with the institutional pattern. Long-time confine-
ment for a younger male is much more significant than a similar period of
confinement for an older adult.
The situation is aggravated by the more recent development of the
juvenile court. Abundant as the merits of such an institution may be, there
are complications involved when a court assumes control of a juvenile for
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
225
a long period of years, until he is twenty or twenty-one, without, at the
same time, considering the problems of sexual adjustment for its ward.
The practice of the juvenile court is based on a reahzation that a child may
need long-time training; but it ignores these other aspects of the child’s
development. The juvenile court protects many a boy from the more
severe sentences of the adult laws ; but it sometimes holds a juvenile for
several years in a correctional institution, or under probation with the
court, when the crime involved would have brought only a few months’
sentence on an adult criminal charge. Adult institutions often have young
inmates who have falsified their age in order to draw the lesser time of a
penal commitment. The juvenile court structure is disguised by a verbiage
which avoids references to “convictions,” “sentences,” “penalties,” “years
to serve,” “prisons,” or “penal institutions.” But in spite of the legal
fiction, the fact remains that teen-age boys may, by order of a court, be
held in custody, sometimes for several years, in institutions which may be
no less repressive and punitive than the average of adult prisons. It is
doubtful if many of these committing judges ever consider the juvenile’s
sexual adjustment when he is sent to such an institution. Within recent
years there has been a movement to extend the jurisdiction of the juvenile
court to persons as old as eighteen or twenty. There are commendable
objectives back of such moves, but no one seems to have considered the
sexual problems that will arise from the commitment of a still larger
portion of the teen-age population to what are in essence long-time insti-
tutions.
The problem is not solved by the common practice of releasing juveniles
from institutions on long-time parole; for the terms of the parole are, in
most states, practically as strict in regard to sexual activities as the rules
of the institution itself. We have numerous histories of boys who have
been paroled from such institutions to elderly persons, often on farms,
who have no understanding of the problems of sexual adjustment of a
younger boy, who do not comprehend the significance of his socio-sexual
development during that period, and who beheve that such a boy should
be kept from making even the simplest sort of social contacts with individ-
uals of the opposite sex. If any large portion of the male population had
been raised under such conditions, the imphcations of the situation would
be apparent to everyone ; but since the boys who get into institutions repre-
sent a small portion and a socially limited portion of the whole population,
most people do not have firsthand contacts with them, and have not,
therefore, considered the problem of sexual adjustment for institutional-
ized boys.
Boys who live in private boarding schools, and even boys who attend
pubhc or private day schools that are restricted to the single sex, face some
of the same sexual problems as the boys in a penal institution.
226
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
SEXUAL AGING
Having reached its peak in adolescence, sexual activity in the male
drops steadily from then into old age (Tables 44-45, Figures 34-37). As
far as human sexuality is concerned, aging begins at least with the onset
of adolescence; and if the capacity (rather than the performance) of the
Total Outlet, Marital Status, and Age
Total Outlet: Sample Population
Total Outlet:
U. S. Population
AGE
GROUP
CASES
TOTAL population
active population
total
POPUL.
ACTIVE
POPULAHON
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Mean
Freq.
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Single Males
Adol.
-15
3012
2.91 ±0.05
2.18
95.1
3,06
2.33
3.17
94.2
3.36
16-20
2868
2.88 ±0.05
2.19
99.2
2.90
2.22
3.30
98.8
3.35
21-25
1535
2.67 ±0.07
1.95
99.1
2.70
1.97
3.04
97.9
3.11
26-30
550
2.63 ±0.11
1.90
99.3
2.65
1.92
2.94
98.6
2.98
31-35
195
2.38 ±0.21
1.58
99.0
'‘2.40
1.60
2.44
99.2
2.46
36-^0
97
2.07 ±0.21
1.36
97.9
2.12
1.39
2.00
98.5
2.04
41-45
56
1.79 ±0.28
0.98
96.4
1.85 ■
1.05
46-50
39
1.88 ± 0.43
1.00
92.3
2.04
1.13
Married Males
16-20
272
4.67
=fc
0.29
3.21
100.0
4,67
3.21
4.83
100.0
4.
83
21-25
751
3.90
=b
0.14
2.81
100.0
3.90
2.81
4.14
100.0
4.
14
26-30
737
3.27
0.12
2.47
100.0
3.27
2.47
3.51
100.0
3.
51
31-35
569
2.73
=b
0.11
2.08
100.0
2.73
2.08
2.90
100.0
2.
90
36-40
390
2.46
=h
0.13
1.89
99,7
2.47
1.89
2.42
99.9
2.
42
41-45
272
1.95
0.12
1.61
100.0
1.95
1.61
1.95
100.0
1.
95
46-50
175
1.79
=fc
0.16
1.18
98.9
1.81
1.20
1.80
98.1
1.
83
51-55
109
1.54
0.18
1.00
98.2
1.57
1.04
1,54
97.2
1.
58
56-60
67
1.08
db
0.12
0.79
98.5
1.09
0.81
Table 45. Total sexual outlet, marital status, and age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51 on masturbation.
pre-adolescent is taken into account (Chapter 5), it seems more correct to
think of aging as a process that sets in soon after the initiation of growth.
The sexagenarian — or octogenarian — ^who suddenly becomes interested
in the problems of aging is nearly a lifetime beyond the point at which he
became involved in that process.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
227
It will be interesting to know how many of the other physical and
physiologic functions of the human animal reach their prime before the
twenties. There are a few studies of physiologic aging, and the data (just
as with sexual aging) show a steady degeneration of capacities from the
age of the youngest child studied. This, for instance, has been shown for
such phenomena as basal heart rate, resting oxygen intake and intake dur-
ing maximum work, respiratory quotient, and carbon dioxide and lactic
acid relations during work (data and references in Robinson 1938). In
everyday affairs, it is to be noted that armies and navies, and others who
depend on manpower to accomplish work, know that the male in his late
teens has physical quality, nervous coordination, and capacity for recovery
that are beyond those of the even slightly older man. But research on
aging has concerned itself primarily with very old individuals, and too
often failed to consider such fundamentals as might be seen only in the
beginnings of the processes. Aging studies need to be re-oriented around
the origins of biologic decline, and that will mean around pre-adolescence
or early adolescence in regard to at least some aspects of human physiology.
From the early and middle teens, the decline in sexual activity is remark-
ably steady, and there is no point at which old age suddenly enters the
picture. The calculations become more significant when the single and
married males are analyzed separately (Table 45, Figures 50-52). There
are no calculations in all of the material on human sexuality which give
straighter slopes than the data showing the decline with age in the total
outlet of the single males, or the similar curve showing the decline in outlet
for the married males. Starting from a high point of 3.2 for the single
males, or 4.8 for the married males, in the middle teens, the mean for both
groups drops steadily to about the same point, 1.8 per week at 50 years of
age, to 1.3 per week at 60 years, and to 0.9 per week at 70 years of age.
Individual males may show variations from this picture, but departures
from a steady decline are exceptions in the population as a whole. There
are some clinical studies (Norbury 1934, Mead and Stith 1940, Heller
and Myers 1944^ Bauer 1944, Werner 1945, et al.) which seem to show that
some males reach a period in middle life that may be recognized as a
climacteric, accompanied by an abrupt reduction in the frequency of
sexual activity; but our own data show no such phenomena for the popula-
tion as a whole, nor for most of the individuals in the population.
The decline in sexual activity of the older male is partly, and perhaps
primarily, the result of a general decline in physical and physiologic
capacity. It is undoubtedly affected also by psychologic fatigue, a loss of
interest in repetition of the same sort of experience, an exhaustion of the
possibilities for exploring new techniques, new types of contacts, new
situations. Evidence of this is to be found in numerous cases of older males
whose frequencies had dropped materially until they met new partners,
228
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Age and Number of Sources of Outlet
AGE
GROUP
c/
VSES
% OF Population Utilizing Each Number of Sources
number of sources
mean no.
OF sources
0
1
1
‘ 2
3
4
5
6
Adol.-15
3,378
5.4
25.3
36.7
22.0
8.3
2.0
0.3
2.10 =t 0.02
16-20
3,206
0.8
8.6
27.5
34.1
22.3
6.1
0.6
2.89 i 0.02
21-25
2,106
0.5
10.5
28.6
35.3
22.8
2.2
0.1
2.77 ± 0.02
26-30
1,062
0.6
15.6
35.3
33.8
13.0
1.6
0.1
2.48 ± 0.03
31-35
704
0.4
23.0
37.5
32.1
6.1
0.8
0.1
2.24 ± 0.04
36-40
511
1.2
30.4
36.5
27.4
3.3
1.2
0.0
2.05 0.04
41^5
358
1.7
36.3
33.5
25.4
2.5
0.6
0.0
1.92 ± 0.05
46-50
235
3.0
38.8
38.7
17.4
1.7
0 4
0.0
1.77 =t 0.06
51-55
151
3.2
43.8
31.1
19.9
1.3
0.7
0 0
1,74 =i= 0.07
56-60
98
7.2
50.2
26.6
12.3
3.7
0.0
0.0
1.56 =t O.IO
AdoL-60
11,809
2.2
18.4
32.4
29.5
14.3
2.9
0.3
2.45
U.S.PopuL
10,000
2.0
25.8
33.1
27.4
9.7
1.8
0.1
2.22
Accumulated % with Each Number of Sources
AGE
CASES
number OF sources
GROUP
median no.
OF sources
1
2
3
4
5
6
Adol.-15
3,378
94.6
69.3
32.6
10.6
2.3
0.3
2.53
16-20
3,206
99.2
90.6
63.1
29.0
6.7
0.6
3.38
21-25
2,106
99.5
89.0
60.4
25.1
2.3
0.1
3.30
26-30
1,062 !
99.4
83.8
48.5
14.7
1.7
0.1
2.96
31-35
704
99.6
76.6
39.1
7.0
0.9
0.1
2.71
36-40
511
98.8
68.8
31.9
4.5
1.2
0.0
2.51
41-45
358
98.3
62.0 ;
28.5
3.1
0.6
0.0
2.36
46-50
235
97.0
58.2 ^
19.5
2.1
0.4
0.0
2.22
51-55
151
96.8
53.0
21.9
2.0
0.7
0.0
2.11
56-60
98
92.8
42.6
16.0
3.7
0.0
0.0
1.87
Adol.-60
11,809
97.8
79.4
47.0
17.5
3.2
0.3
2.91
U. S. PopuL
10,000
98.0
72.2
39.1
11.7
1.9
0.1
2.67
Table 46. Age and number of sources of outlet
Effect of age on the number of different kinds of sexual outlet (masturbation, dreams,
intercourse, etc.) utilized in each age period. Based on the whole population involved
in the study. Calculations of means for the U. S. population are based on a theoretic
population with the age distribution found in the U. S. Census for 1940.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
229
adopted new sexual techniques, or embraced totally new sources of outlet.
Under new situations, their rates materially rise, to drop again, however,
within a few months, or in a year or two, to the old level. How much of the
over-all decline in the rate for the older male is physiologic, how much is
based on psychologic situations, how much is based on the reduced avail-
ability of contacts, and how much is, among educated people, dependent
upon preoccupation with other social or business functions in the pro-
fessionally most active period of the male’s life, it is impossible to say at
the present time.
ADOL-15 I6'Z0 ZI-Z5 Z6-50 31-55 56-40 41-45 46-50 51-55 56-60
AGE GROUPS
Figure 35. Number of sources of outlet in relation to age
In addition to the decrease in frequency of total outlet, there is a more
or less corresponding decrease in frequency for each type of outlet (Tables
51-59, Figures 38-49, 53-88).
The number of sources contributing to the total outlet is highest in the
16-20 year period. After that, some of the sources of outlet are abandoned
in some of the histories. From the teens into old age there is a steady
decline in number of sources utilized (Table 46, Figure 35). The mean
number of sources of outlet for the older teen-age males is 2.9 (a median
of 3.4), and there is a fair number of individuals (6.7%) of that age wh®
have five or six kinds of outlet. By 60 years of age, the mean number of
sources has dropped to 1.6 (the median is 1.9), and none of these 60-year
olds has more than four sources of outlet.
Throughout the life span, there is a steady decline in erotic responsive-
ness (Table 47). As measured by reactions to particular stimuh, each his-
230
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
tory in the present study has been rated on a scale which allows some
comparison of persons of different degrees of responsiveness. Ratings for
the entire white male population average, for instance, 16.4 at 26-30 years
of age. The ratings then steadily drop, until they reach a median erotic
rating of 3.6 between 66 and 70 years of age.
Frequencies of morning erection show some decline from younger to
older age groups (Table 47). The frequency is probably highest in pre-
adolescent or early adolescent boys, where we do not have sufficient data.
Age Affecting Physical and Physiologic Characters
Medians
AGE
GROUP
j
EROTIC
RATING
MORNING
ERECTIONS,
FREQUENCIES
PER WEEK
DURATION
OF
ERECTION,
MINUTES
ANGLE
OF
ERECTION
(HIGHER ANGLES
INDICATED BY
LARGER FIGURES)
MUCOUS
SECRETION
(GREATER
ABUNDANCE
INDICATED BY
LARGER figure)
Adol.-15
13.64
0.97
12.00
0.74
0.00
16-20
14.51
1.40
42.88 i
1.02
1.07
21-25
15.82
1.41
54.43 i
1.06
1.37
26-30
16.35
1.77
53.09
1.10
1.26
31-35
13,92
2.05
47.24
0.94
1.08
36-^0
12.60
1.68
40.62
0.91
0,97
41-45
10.31
1.47
31.07
0.95
0.72
46-50
8.73
1.33
29.02
0,78
0.57
51-55 1
6.44
1.29
21.62
0.81
0.80
56-60
8.17
26.67
0.00
61-65
4.75
1.18
1 19.50
0.81
0.00
66-70
3.60
i 0.50
7.00
0.64
0.00
71+
0.00
I
0.00
0.00
Table 47. Age affecting physiologic capacities
Data for angle of erection and for mucous secretion were coded, and calculations
based on the figures so obtained.
The highest recorded median frequency is 2.05 per week between 31 and
35 years of age. By age 70 the median frequency is down to 0.50, and it
drops still lower in older groups. There are a number of cases of persons
who were able to record the amount of decrease in frequency of morning
erections in their individual histories. There are some data that indicate
that the frequency of morning erection is correlated with general physical
vigor and, consequently, with frequency of sexual activity (e.g,, Hamilton
1937), and that the steady decline in morning erections over the life span
is therefore some measure of the decline in intensity of the sex drive in
the male.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
231
There is evidence of greater speed in reaching full erection during earlier
years, and slower erection during later years, although this has been a
difficult matter on which to secure calculable data. We have already
drawn attention to the high sensitivity of pre-adolescent boys (Chapter 5).
Older adults are definitely slower than youths in their teens and twenties.
A number of our adults were able to estimate the changes which had
occurred in the course of their lives. This gradual loss in speed of erection
of the male becomes evident ten or twenty years before he becomes
totally impotent*
The length of time over which erection can be maintained during con-
tinuous erotic arousal and before there is an ejaculation, drops from an
average of nearly an hour in the late teens and early twenties to 7 minutes
in the 66-70 year old group (Table 47). Under prolonged stimulation, as
in heterosexual petting or group activities or in protracted homosexual
activities, many a teen-age male will maintain a continuous erection for
several hours, even when the physical contacts are at a minimum and, in
some cases, even after two or three ejaculations have occurred. Very few
middle-aged males, and no older ones, are capable of such a performance.
A considerable loss in ability to maintain an erection becomes evident some
years before the onset of complete impotence.
In any age group there is considerable variation in the angle at which
the erect penis is carried on the standing male. The average position,
calculated from all ages, is very' slightly above the horizontal, but there
are approximately 15 to 20 per cent of the cases where the angle is about
45° above the horizontal, and 8 to 10 per cent of the males who carry the
erect penis nearly vertically, more or less tightly against the belly. The
angle of erection is, in general, higher for males in the early twenties, and
lower in more advanced ages (Table 47). Average angles become definitely
reduced in males past fifty. It has been difficult to secure quite dependable
estimates of angles from the subjects in this study, and it is probable that
the changes in medians shown in the table do not express the full extent
of the change with advancing age. There are records of 106 older males
who recalled a change through the years of their own histories ; and these
cases indicate a more considerable drop in angle, even from near the
vertical to the horizontal or, at later ages, to something below a horizontal
position.
With advancing age there is a steady reduction in the amount of pre-
coital mucus which is, in a portion of the population, secreted from the
tirethra during sexual arousal and before ejaculation. In each age group
there are about a third of the males who do not secrete such a mucus.
Usually the secretion forms only a single clear drop; but for some males
it amounts to several drops, or it is enough to wet the whole glans of the
penis, or enough to drip. The greater abundance is found in the twenty-
232
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
TOTAL
POPULATION
ACTIVE IN
COITUS OR
HOMOSEXUAL
Capacities for Multiple Orgasm
ORGASMS per CONTACT:
NUMBER OF CASES INVOLVED
1-2
2
2-3
3
4
! 5 +
Total
Pre-adol.
182
17
18
10
56
101
Adol.-15
792
53
66
14
14
8
3
158
16-20
2092
91
1 155
32
28
i 10
2
318
21-25 1
2886
65
115
30
22
6
2
240
26-30
1225
43
44
15
7
2
1
112
31-35
866
21
20
10
2
3
0
56
36-40
630
13
6
7
2
1
0
29
41-45
431
3
3
2
1
1
0
10
46-50
278
2
3
2
1
1
0
9
51-55
172
2
3
1
1
1
0
8
56-60
101
1
1
0
1
0
0
3
Total
9655
294
433
113
97
43
64
1044
ORGASMS PER
CONTACT.
% OF ACTIVE POPULATION
INVOLVED
AGE
TOTAL
POPULATION
tjfKUUlr
1-2
2
2-3
3
4
5+
Total
Pre-adol.
182
9.3
9 9
5.5
30 8
55.5
Adol.-15
792
6.7
8.3
1.8
1.8
1.0
0 4
20.0
16-20
2092
4.3
7.4
1.5
1.3
0.5
0.1
15 2
21-25
2886
2.3
4.0
1.0
0 8
0.2
0.1
8.3
26-30
1225
3.5
3.6
1.2
0.6
0.2
0.1
9.1
31-35
866
2.4
2.3
1 2
0 2
0.3
0.0
6.5
36-40
630
2.1
1.0
1 1
0.3
0.2
0.0
4.6
41-45
431
0.7
0.7
0.5
0.2
0.2
0.0
2 3
46-50
278
0.7
1.1
0.7
0.4
0.4
0.0
3.2
51-55
172
1.2
1.7
0.6
0.6
0.6
0.0
4.7
56-60
101
1.0
1.0
0.0
1.0
0.0
0.0
3.0
Table 48. Multiple orgasm and age
Capacity to have multiple orgasm in each sexual contact rapidly decreases with age
the capacities of the pre-adolescent males and males in their teens being far beyond those
of older adults. Table includes 380 males who regularly have multiple climax m inter-
course.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
233
year old males, and there is a steady decline among the older males (Table
47). There are a few males who have been able to indicate the amount of
reduction in their histories; but the record accumulated for the current
ages (at time of reporting) gives a more definite picture of the decline The
amount of mucus varies in any individual with the intensity of the erotic
arousal, and it is probable that the lessened secretion of the older male is
as much a measure of a reduction in the degree of arousal, as it may be of
degenerating glands.
The capacity to reach repeated climax in a limited period of time defi-
nitely decreases with advancing age. Occasional multiple climax occurs in
Figure 36 Capacity for multiple orgasm ia relation to age
most of the histories, but regular multiple climax is characteristic of only
a smaller number of males. The capacity is highest among those pre-
adolescent boys (55.5%) who have sufficient sexual contact to test their
capacities (Chapter 5), but multiple climax is still frequent among males
(15% to 20%) in their teens and twenties (Table 48). While a few males
(perhaps 3%) retain this capacity until they are 60 or older, most men
lose it by 35 or 40 years of age.
Individuals differ in the way in which they age just as they differ in their
frequencies and in their choices of sexual outlet Generalizations which
are based on averages of any sort must always be tempered with an under-
standing of the range of variation in each age group Data on means and
medians must not be confused with data on particular individuals, many of
whom represent wide departures from any average.
234
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
It is important to note that the range of variation in physical and
behavioral characters is greatest in the youngest groups and is gradually
reduced in successive periods (Table 49). This means that older populations
are more homogeneous than younger groups. This is true in regard to the
frequency of total sexual outlet, and in connection with most but not all
of the individual sources of outlet.
Masturbation, nocturnal emissions, total pre-marital intercourse, and
animal intercourse follow the general picture in having their maximum
Maximum Frequencifs per Week
(Not Including the One Most Extreme Case in Each Group)
AGE
GROUP
CASES
STUDIED
TOTAL OUTLET
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL
EMISSIONS
PRE-MARITAL
INTERCOURSE
MARITAL
INTERCOURSE
ANIMAL
INTERCOURSE
PETTING TO CLIMAX
INTERCOURSE WITH
PROSTITUTES
HOMOSEXUAL
EXTRA-MARITAL
INTERCOURSE
Adol.
-15
3012
29.0
23.0
12.0
25.0
8.0
3.5
2.0
7.0
16-20
2868
28.0
15.0
6.5
25.0
25.0
4.0
4.5
4.0
10.0
7.5
21-25
1535
29.0
12.0
6.5
25.0
29.0
1.0
7.0
7.0
11. 0
18.0
26-30
550
29.0
9.0
4.0
16.0
25.0
0.1
4.0
4.0
15.0
6.0
31-35
195
29.0
7.0
3.0
13.0
20.0
1.0
3.0
4.5
4.0
36-40
97
22.0
7.0
2.0
8.5
20.0
0.5
2.5
4.0
4.0
41-45
56
15 0
7.0
1.0
6.5
14.0
0.5
1.5
5.0
2.0
46-50
39
14.0
6.0
1.0
3.5
14.0
0.1
2.5
5.0
2.5
51-55
173
7.0
1.5
1.0
6.0
1.0
0.1
2.0
56-60
106
4.5
0.5
0.5
3.0
0.1
2.0
61-65
58
4.0
5.0
2.0
Table 49. Range of variation and age
Data based on histories of single (unmarried) males, except for marital and extra-marital
intercourse. The lower limits of the ranges are 0 or near 0, and the maximum case is therefore
a measure of the range of variation in each case. Differences between the least active and
most active individuals in each age group decrease with advancing age, Le., the range of
varaition becomes less, the homogeneity of the population increases, with advancing age.
Only the last 4 sources have the maximum cases in anything but the youngest groups.
range of variation in the youngest years, and narrower ranges in the older
years. On the other hand, pre-marital petting, pre-marital intercourse with
prostitutes, homosexual activity, and extra-marital intercourse reach their
maximum range of variation ten or more years beyond adolescence. The
magnitudes of the ranges in these latter cases increase through the first
age groups (in spite of reductions in sample size). The latter cases, it is to
be noted, include more or less taboo activities. In these cases, the restric-
tion of these ranges in the younger groups is probably due to the impact of
the social tradition ; and the achievement of maximum range and maximum
mean frequency at a later period represents the gradual emancipation of
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
235
the individual from the social tradition, and his final acceptance of a
pattern which suits him (Chapter 21). Many of the individual histories
support such an interpretation. After reaching the maximum range, each
of these outlets then follows the rule in having the range of variation drop
in successive age periods.
OLD AGE AND IMPOTENCE
We have the histories of 87 white males (and 39 Negro males) past 60
years of age. The number is too small to allow statistical analyses of the
sort employed for the other age groups. Nevertheless, there is such interest
in the sexual fate of the older male that it seems valuable to summarize the
data even for these few cases.
The most important generalization to be drawn from the older groups
is that they carry on directly the pattern of gradually diminishing activity
which started with 16-year olds. Even in the most advanced ages, there
is no sudden elimination of any large group of individuals from the
picture. Each male may reach the point where he is, physically, no longer
capable of sexual performance, and where he loses all interest in further
activity; but the rate at which males slow up in these last decades does
not exceed the rate at which they have been slowing up and dropping out
in the previous age groups. This seems astounding, for it is quite contrary
to general conceptions of aging processes in sex. The mean frequencies of
these older white males who are still active range from 1.0 per week in the
65-year old group to 0.3 in the 75-year olds, and less than 0.1 in the
80-year old group (Table 44).
At 60 years of age, 5 per cent of these males were completely inactive
sexually. By 70, nearly 30 per cent of them were inactive. From there on,
the incidence curve (as far as our few cases allow us to judge) continues to
drop. There is, of course, tremendous individual variation. There is the
history of one 70-year old white male whose ejaculations were still aver-
aging more than 7 per week. Among the Negro males, there was one aged
88 who was still having intercourse with his 90-year old wife, with frequen-
cies varying from one per month to one per week. In the latter case, both
of the spouses were still definitely responsive.
Heterosexual intercourse continues longer than any other outlet, but
masturbation still occurs in some of the histories of men between 71 and
86 years of age, and nocturnal dreams with emission persist into the 76-80
year period. Among these cases, there is no male over 75 who has more than
a single source of outlet. Erotic response at age 75 has a rating which is
one-quarter of the mean rating for age 65.
Among these particular males, the mean frequency of morning erections
had been 4.9 per week in the earlier years of their hves. In the 65-year
period, it had dropped to 1.8, and at 75 years of age it had dropped to 0.9
236
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
TOTAL 1
POPULATION
CASES
IMPOTENT
%
IMPOTENT
INCREMENT
[ /o
10
4108
0
0
15
3948
2
0.05
0.05
20
3017
3
0.1
0.05
25
1627
6
0.4
0.3
30
1025
8
0.8
0.4
35
741
10
1.3
0.5
40
513
10
1.9
0.6
45
347
9
2.6
0.7
50
236
16
6.7
4.1
55
134
9
6.7
0.0
60
87
16
18.4
11.7
65
44
11
25.0
6.6
70
26
7
27.0
2.0
75
11
5
55.0
28.0
80
4
3
75.0
20.0
Table 50. Age and erectile impotence
An accumulative incidence curve ; based on cases which are more or less totally and,
to all appearances, permanently impotent.
Figure 37. Age of onset of impotence
Percent of total population which is impotent is shown for each age.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
237
per week. Morning erections usually persist for several years, even as long
as five or ten years, after a male has become completely impotent in other
situations.
The data on impotence will command especial interest. True ejaculatory
impotence (incapacity to ejaculate even when aroused and in erection) is a
very rare phenomenon (in 6 out of 4108 cases). Erectal impotence, on the
other hand, is not uncommon. It appears occasionally in younger cases
and is, of course, the ultimate outcome of the sexual picture in a portion of
the older histories. Early erectal impotence occurs in only a few cases
(0.4 per cent of the males under 25, and less than 1 per cent of the males
under 35 years of age). In only a small portion of these is it a hfelong and
complete incapacity. Sometimes the situation is complicated by a normal
development of erotic responsiveness without an ability to perform. In
some of these males, ejaculation may occur without erection as a result of
the utilization of special techniques in intercourse. In many older persons,
erectile impotence is, fortunately, accompanied by a decUne in and usually
complete cessation of erotic response.
Out of 4108 adult males on whom adequate data are available, there are
66 cases which have reached more or less permanent erectile impotence.
Ruling out instances of temporary incapacity in younger individuals, the
ages involved in onset of permanent impotence and the incidence data
for each of the subsequent age groups are shown in Table 50 and Figure 37.
It will be seen that there are stray cases of impotence between adolescence
and 35 years of age. Between 45 and 50, more males become incapacitated,
and after 55 the number of cases increases rapidly. By 70 years of age,
about one-quarter (27.0%) of the white males have become impotent; by
75 more than one-half (55.0%) are so; and 3 out of the 4 white males in
the 80-year group are impotent. Two Negro males were still potent at 80,
We have three histories of Negroes 88 years of age, and one aged 90. One
of these males had been impotent for fifteen years. Two had not tried to
have intercourse for some years, but morning erections made them believe
they would still be potent if aroused; they were, however, no longer
responding to erotic stimulation. The oldest potent male in our histories
was the 88-year old Negro, who was still having regular intercourse with
his 90-year old wife. Only a portion of the population ever becomes
impotent before death, although most males, but not all of them, would
become so if they all lived into their eighties.
A problem which deserves noting is that of the old men who are appre-
hended and sentenced to penal institutions as sex offenders. These men are
usually charged with contributing to delinquency by fondling minor girls
or boys; often they are charged with attempted rape. Among the older sex
offenders who have given histories for the present study, a considerable
238
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
number insist that they are impotent, and many of them give a history of
long-standing impotence. A few of these men may have falsified the record,
and many courts incline to the belief that all of them perjure themselves.
We find, however, definite evidence in the histories that many of these men
are in actuality incapable of erection. The usual professional interpretation
describes these offenders as sexually thwarted, incapable of winning atten-
tion from older females, and reduced to vain attempts with children who
are unable to defend themselves. An interpretation which would more
nearly fit our understanding of old age would recognize the decline in
erotic reaction, the loss of capacity to perform, and the reduction of the
emotional life of the individual to such affectionate fondling as parents
and especially grandparents are wont to bestow upon their own (and other)
children. Many small girls reflect the public hysteria over the prospect of
‘‘being touched” by a strange person ; and many a child, who has no idea
at all of the mechanics of intercourse, interprets affection and simple
caressing, from anyone except her own parents, as attempts at rape. In
consequence, not a few older men serve time in penal institutions for
attempting to engage in a sexual act which at their age would not interest
most of them, and of which many of them are undoubtedly incapable.
MASTURBATION AND AGE
Masturbation is primarily a phenomenon of younger and unmarried
groups, although it does occur in a fair number of the married histories.
Later analyses will show that the incidence and frequency of masturbation
are particularly affected by social backgrounds and correlated with educa-
tional levels and occupational status (Chapter 10).
The highest incidence for masturbation among single males (in the popu-
lation taken as a whole) lies between 16 and 20 years of age, when 88 per
cent is involved (Table 51, Figures 53-58). If the population is broken
down into three groups on the basis of the amount of schooling they receive
before they finally leave school (Table 82), it becomes apparent that the
highest frequencies of masturbation really occur in the period between
adolescence and age 15. The incidence steadily drops from that point.
About half of the single population (53.8%) is still masturbating at 50
years of age. Among married males, the highest incidence (42T%) occurs
between 21 and 25 years of age, and the figures for these males similarly
drop steadily into old age. In the middle fifties, hardly more than a tenth
of the married males (11.4%) is involved. Masturbation is the first major
source of outlet to disappear from the histories. A stray male is still in-
volved at 75 years of age, but there is no complete masturbation to orgasm
in any of the older histories.
Individuals differ tremendously in the frequencies with which they
masturbate. There are boys who never masturbate. There are boys who
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
239
masturbate twice or thrice in a lifetime; and there are boys and older
youths who masturbate two and three times a day, averaging 20 or more
per week throughout periods of some years. The population is most
variable (the range of masturbatory frequencies is greatest, the differences
between the least active and most active males are greatest) in the 11-15-
year old group (Table 49). From this point on, the population becomes
more homogeneous (there is a steady decline in range of frequencies) with
advancing age. The highest rating individual at 15 years of age has a mas-
turbatory rate which is two and a half times that of the highest rating in-
dividual at 30 years of age, and four times the rate of the highest individual
at 50 years of age.
For the single population, the maximum average frequencies of mastur-
bation are in the very youngest group (Table 51, Figures 53-58). In this
group the boy who is masturbating at all ejaculates more than twice a week
from this source (a mean of 2.1 and a median of 1.8 for the active popu-
lation). By the middle teens the frequencies have dropped to approximately
two-thirds of the figures in the younger group, and they continue to drop
steadily into old age. By 50 years of age, there is about half as much mas-
turbation among single males as in the younger adolescent boys. The decline
in frequencies is dependent upon the fact that masturbation is, to a certain
extent, a substitute for heterosexual or homosexual intercourse which
replaces it in older groups ; but it is to be emphasized that throughout the
lives of many males, including married males especially of upper social
levels, masturbation remains as an occasional source of outlet that is
deUberately chosen for variety and for the particular sort of pleasure
involved. Among the married males who do masturbate the frequencies
are usually not high, averaging about once in three weeks for the active
population as a whole. The frequencies are much higher for married males
of upper educational levels. For the total married population, the mean
frequencies are highest in the youngest age groups, dropping steadily into
old age; but in the active portion of the married population, the frequen-
cies hardly vary between 16 and 55 years of age. Here the effect of age is
not in the direction of reducing rates among individuals who do mastur-
bate, but by way of reducing the number of males who are involved.
In the youngest adolescent group, considering the population as a whole,
the average boy is drawing nearly two-thirds (60.2%) of his total sexual
outlet from masturbation. The figures drop steadily into old age. By 50,
the average unmarried male who has any masturbation in his history de-
rives only about a third (37.9%) of his outlet from that source. Among
the married males who draw at all on this outlet, about 8 per cent of
the total number of ejaculations comes from masturbation between 16
and 20 years of age; and, interesting to note, the figure rises in the later
married years until it reaches 16 per cent at 50 years of age.
9
240
41-45 56 0.61 ± 0.19 0.08 35.19 60.7 1.01 ± 0.29 0.37 43.66 ± 6.31
46-50 -39 0.62 ± 0.25 0.07 33.13 53.8 1.15 ± 0.45 0.50 37.88 ± 7.05
Married Males
(S-ctfonT-icocsio
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241
Nocturnal Emissions and Age
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CO CO
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wo o VD O'
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04
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d
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41 41 41 41
41
41 41 41
41
wo 04 O
o
VO wo wo
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04 04 0^4 04
04
r— 1 T— 1
o o o o o
d d d
d
ON o VO VO
CO
TO o o
rt
04 d 04 Q
wo WO VO 'o
CO
TO oo Tj*
CO
wo
wo Tj- '(t
04
w^ 00 Os
O
O th 04
CO
00 VO C4 wo
wo ON TO
O'
04 CO Tj- Tj-
Tf CO Tt*
CM*
>— 1 CO CO CO
^ o o
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o o o o
o
o o o
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o o o o
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d d d
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zr
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o o o
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41
CO Tt 04
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r-( T-< T— 1 f— 1
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d
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t'' wo CO VO
OS
r' O' o
VO
04 O' t" wo
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242
Table 52. Nocturnal emissions and age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51 on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
243
Age is, obviously, a factor which affects masturbation in most of its
aspects. Its influences are to be noted in the steady reductions in the num-
bers of persons involved (the incidences); in similar reductions in the fre-
quencies (rates per week) with which masturbation occurs, both in the
single and in the married portions of the population ; in the reduction in
the range of frequency. The percentage of the total outlet which is supplied
by masturbation is reduced in the total population, both single and married ;
but among those who continue to draw on this source, masturbation
remains a fairly constant portion of the outlet during the single years, even
if they extend into old age. For the married males who masturbate it is an
increasingly important source of orgasm with the advancing years.
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS AND AGE
Nocturnal emissions enter the picture somewhat later than other sources
of sexual outlet (Table 52, Figures 59-64). In only a small number of cases
do they appear at the very beginning of adolescence. Even in those cases
where dreams provide the first source of ejaculation, pubic hair and other
physical characteristics usually indicate that the individual became adoles-
cent a year or more before the first emission. There are 4 cases of persons
who were past 40 before they had their first nocturnal emission. Neverthe-
less, dreams to climax are primarily a phenomenon of the teens and the
twenties.
The highest incidence of nocturnal emissions is about 71 per cent among
single males 21 to 25 years of age. By 50, only about a third of the males
still experience such dreams. By 60 years of age only 14 per cent still has
them. It is interesting to note that dreams as an occasional source of
ejaculation still appear in the histories of men as old as 86.
In the youngest age group there are a few individuals who dream to
climax with average frequencies which run as high as 12 per week, although
there are many males who average only a few times per year. The maximum
frequencies drop rapidly in successive age groups. At 30 years of age, the
maximum is only a third as high, and by 50 years of age it is only a twelfth
as high, as at age 15.
Among single males of the active population, nocturnal emissions occur
with the highest frequency between adolescence and 30 years of age.
Among the married males the highest frequency is between 16 and 30 years
of age. The highest average frequency, for those single males who have any
nocturnal emissions at all, is about once in three weeks (0.3 per week);
for the married males, it is once in four weeks (0.23 per week). In both
groups there is a decline in frequencies after thirty. Beyond 50 years of
age, nocturnal enoissions do not average more than four or five per year,
for those individuals who have any at all.
AND Age
cS
2
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to
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vs
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CO
vs
CM CO CO CO CJ
CM
T-I
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d o o o o
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CO
C'
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T-I
o
vs
T-I CO Tj- CO CM
T-I
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CM
VO i-H r-l t-H VS
00
T-I
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o o
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o o o o o
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d
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41
41
41
vs CM VO T-H VO
CM
T— 1
05 T-H T— 1 T— 1
o o o
o o o o d
d d d
CM OO VO O vs
c-
VO
OS
tH VO CO vs os
O 00 VS VS TH
CO CM T-I
Os
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32
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244
For explanations, see legend with Table 51 on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
245
In the early twenties, the average single male (total population) derives
about one-twelfth (8.3%) of his total outlet from nocturnal dreams. From
there on, this outlet is of decreasing importance in the total picture. For
those single males who have any dreams at all (active population), they
are of greatest importance (21.5% of the total outlet) in the middle thirties.
Among married males they are of lesser significance, accounting for about
3 per cent of the total ejaculations of the total population throughout the
life span. They steadily rise in importance among the males in the active
portion of the married population, representing 5 per cent of the outlet of
the younger married males, and 10 per cent of the outlet of the older
married males who ever do dream to the point of cHmax.
PETTING TO CLIMAX, AND AGE
Pre-marital heterosexual histories often involve a considerable amount
of physical contact without actual intercourse. About 88 per cent of the
total male population has such petting experience prior to manage (Table
134, Figure 117). There are some males (and a smaller number of females)
who respond to such stimulation, whether generalized or more specifically
genital, to the point of complete orgasm. Such petting, as it is usually
called, is not entirely new with the younger generation; but frank and fre-
quent participation in physical stimulation that is openly intended to
effect orgasm is definitely more abundant now than it was among older
generations. A great deal of the petting does not proceed to orgasm, but
more than a quarter of all the males (28%) pet to that point prior to mar-
riage (Table 135, Figure 118). The incidence of the phenomenon is still
higher at upper educational levels (Chapters 10 and 16) where more than
half of the males (58%) are ultimately involved. The highest incidence in
any single age period is 31.8 per cent during the 21 to 25-year period, and
the figures drop steadily from there until the time of marriage — or until
they disappear in the old age of still unmarried males.
The highest frequencies recorded for any individual male average 7.0
per week, in the 21 to 25-year group, after which the maximum cases drop
quickly to 0.5 per week after 35 years of age (Table 49).
The frequencies with which males reach orgasm in pre-marital petting
are relatively low, in all age groups (Table 53, Figures 38-43). This is one
phenomenon where frequencies are not highest in the youngest group.
Calculated in any way (as means, or medians, for the total, or for only the
active portion of the population) the maximum performance is in the 21 to
25-year old group, where the mean of the active population is about once
in three weeks (0.30 per week). The averages (means for the active popu-
lation) then drop a bit from 26 to 40 years of age, and more abruptly there-
after.
PERCENT OF POPULATION PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
PETTING TO CLIMAX
PETTING TO CLIMAX
M£AN FREaUENCieS
TOTAL POPULATION
RA
FI6
H DATA
CORRECTI
. 38
OM
y
SIM<
I I ^ ! I 1 XZ„r--:„rT.d- ^ 1
-J5 -20 -25 -50 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
ACE GROUPS
Z5
20
IS
10
PETTING TO CLIMAX
PEIlCeNT OF TOTAL OUTtCT
TOTAL POPULATION
RA\
mmm u S
FIG
H DATA
CORRECT
39
ON
\
SINGLE
^ J
n
—
—
-15 -20 -25 -50 -55 -40 -45 -50 -55 - 60
ACE GROUPS
Figures 38-40. Relation of age to frequency, incidence, and significance of
petting to climax
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
246
FREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
PETTING TO CLIMAX
SINGLE
\
\
\
^
/
/
"'s.
PETTING TO CLIMAX
MEAN FREaUENCIES
ACTIVE POPULATION
RAW DATA
U 5 CORRECTION
-15 -20 -25 -50 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
SINGLE
y
/
1
!
PETTING TO CLIMAX
PERCENT OF TOTAL OUTLET
ACTIVE POPULATION
RAW data
mmm v S CORRCCTIOM
FIG. 42 I
—
/
y
y
A
\
\
\
\
\
\
N
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
PETTING TO CUMAX
MEDIAN FREaUENCIES
ACTIVE population
\A
— — RAW DATA
I FIG. 43 I
"SINGLE^
i
1
-15 -20 -25 -30 -55 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Figures 41-43. Relation of age to frequency and significance of petting to climax
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
247
Non-marital Intercourse and
w
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CO 00 04 O 'Tj- t— < ro
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00 CO CO On CN T— I ^
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OOOOOOOOO
I o O O O O O O
■'Ct-Tt-OTj-00tOC4cO'<
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OOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOO
r-vor4r4«/^<NTftoto
OOOOOOOOO
d d d d d d d d d
-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H-H
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cocnOvotCN'^OOt^
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tNcNcncOTf'^totnvo
vi J. vi ^ 5 I J. Mi
'rH(S(NcncO'^t'?l'»o«ri
248
Table 54. Non-marital intercourse with companions, and age
Showing pre-marital intercourse for single males, extra-marital for married males. For the additional intercourse which those same males have with
prostitutes, see Table 55. For further explanations, see the legend with Table 51 on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
249
Between and 25 years of age, the average male (total population)
derives 3.0 per cent of his total sexual outlet from petting to climax.
Leaving out the males who never do reach orgasm in petting, the statement
can be made that about 6 per cent of the total outlet is so derived by the
average male between 16 and 20 years of age, and this figure builds up
to 17.5 per cent at 40 years of age. Since this source drops steadily in im-
portance for the total single population, but rises in importance for
individuals who are actively engaged in this activity, it is evident that
the percentage of the population which is involved steadily decreases in
older age groups. Petting is less important as a source of outlet than any
other sexual behavior except intercourse with animals of other species. It
is much more significant as a means of education toward the making of
socio-sexual adjustments.
The low incidence and frequency of petting to climax in the older single
groups may be correlated with the usually low rates of all sexual activities
at that age, and with the fact that a large number of older, single males are
apathetic, sexually inhibited, socially timid, or heterosexually disinclined.
The present data, however, may be merely an expression of the fact that
petting as a source of outlet has acquired vogue only in more recent dec-
ades. It is possible that some years hence those members of the present
younger generation who are still unmarried may account for an increase
in the frequency of this activity at older levels.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE AND AGE
It is probable that heterosexual intercourse would provide the major
source of pre-marital outlet if there were no restrictions on the activity of
the younger male. There is, however, no other sort of activity that is so
markedly affected by the tradition of the social level in which the individual
is raised (Chapter 10). The incidence and frequencies of pre-marital inter-
course are very low for the more educated portion of the population; but
for lower educational levels this remains as the chief source of outlet
before marriage. Data on pre-marital intercourse must, therefore, be inter-
preted in connection with the other factors which are treated in the present
volume.
The highest incidence of pre-marital intercourse comes in the late teens,
where nearly three-quarters (70.5%) of the total U. S. population is in-
volved (Table 54, Figures 71-76). From that point the incidence drops,
but still stays high. In every age group between 16 and 50, more than half
(from 70.5% down to 51.3%) of the single males engage in heterosexual
intercourse.
The variation in frequency of pre-marital intercourse in any group is at
its maximum between adolescence and 25 years of age (Table 49). From
that point, the range becomes increasingly restricted in each older popu-
Intercourse with Prostitutes:
ooo^o^'Or'J■^oom
mr^ooc^mooiort
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^T-<r4<NfOfn'^Tr-
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vi ^ ^ a. 3 2 .A j. vi
250
Table 55. Intercourse with prostitutes, and age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51 on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
251
lation. At 15 years of age, the most active male is having pre-marital inter-
course with ejaculation on an average of 25 times per week. At 30 years of
age, the extreme male still has a rate of 16 per week; but by 50 years of
age, the maximum frequency is down to 3.5 per week.
For the total population, the highest frequency of pre-marital inter-
course occurs in the 16-20 year group, where the mean is about one and a
third times (1.32) per week. If the calculations are made on the active males
only, the highest average frequency is in the youngest group, between
adolescence and 15 years of age, where the corrected figure is almost
exactly 2 per week. It again becomes evident that the youngest boy has
the greatest capacity and the highest frequency of activity if he has the
opportunity to exercise it. From age 16 on, the frequencies drop, and those
males who are still unmarried at 50 engage in intercourse only a quarter
as often (0.5 per week) as the active teen-age boys.
With advancing age, the average unmarried male draws a somewhat
decreasing proportion of his total outlet from pre-marital intercourse.
The average teen-age boy (of the active population) derives nearly half of
all his outlet from intercourse. The average 50-year old, unmarried male
derives nearer a third of his outlet from heterosexual intercourse (the data
based on interpolations from the uncorrected figures in Table 54). This
follows the now familiar pattern of each outlet beginning at its peak in the
middle teens, and going down in rate with advancing age.
Pre-marital intercourse may be had either with companions or with
professional prostitutes. Among unmarried males, an increasing portion
of the intercourse is derived in later years from paid contacts (Table 55,
Figures 77-82). In the adolescent to 15-year group, less than 1 per cent of
the boys with pre-marital intercourse depend solely upon prostitutes, and
14.6 per cent have intercourse with both companions and prostitutes. By
50 years of age, a seventh of the males (14.3%) who have pre-marital inter-
course depend entirely upon prostitutes, and more than a half of them
(62.0%) have intercourse with both companions and prostitutes.
The individual males who have the highest frequencies of pre-marital
intercourse with prostitutes are found in the group between 21 and 25 years
of age (Table 49). In both younger and older age groups, the maximum
frequencies are lower (/.e., the range of variation in those populations is
less).
For this active portion of the population, the frequency of intercourse
with companions is greatest between adolescence and 15, after which the
frequencies drop steadily into the oldest ages; but intercourse with prosti-
tutes increases in frequency until it reaches its maximum (over 0.6 per
week) between 26 and 35 years of age. This increase in frequency is not an
effect of aging, but a social effect. Younger males find it easier to secure
intercourse with girls of their own age and social level. The older male
Marital Intercourse and Age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51, on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
253
finds it more convenient and less dangerous to secure intercourse from
professional sources. This custom may not be followed by succeeding
generations, who have been less accustomed to going to prostitutes at any
age (Chapter 11).
For the younger males, between 16 and 20, prostitution provides only
4 per cent of the total outlet for the population as a whole, and about 1 1
per cent of the outlet for those who actually frequent prostitutes. But by
50 years of age, prostitutes provide nearer a sixth (approximately 16%) of
the total outlet for the still single males, and more than half (about 53%)
of the total outlet for the males who do go to prostitutes. Since payment for
sexual contacts is much more frequent among males of particular social
levels, the data need the breakdown which will be given them in subse-
quent chapters on social factors affecting patterns of sexual behavior.
MARITAL INTERCOURSE AND AGE
Marital intercourse is the one activity which is least affected by any of
the social factors except marital status itself. The data given here are
based on males who are living with either legal or common-law wives.
Between 16 and 40 years of age, practically all of the males (more than
99%) who are married find some outlet in marital intercourse (Table 56,
Figures 44-49). From 45 on, there are a few males who discontinue such
intercourse even though they remain wedded and live with their wives.
By 60 years of age about 6 per cent of the married males are no longer
active. Our limited series of older histories shows 83 per cent of the males
having intercourse with their wives at ages 60-65, and 70 per cent having
it between 66 and 70. We have so few histories of still older married males
that we cannot make a further statement.
In all the age groups between 16 and 30, there are individuals who have
intercourse with frequencies as high as 25 or more per week (Table 49).
Such high frequencies are not found in older groups. There the range of
variation becomes narrower ; and by 50 years of age the maximum average
rate for any individual is 14 per week. By 60 the maximum has cut down
to 3 per week.
It is particularly instructive to compare average frequencies in marital
intercourse for successive age groups (Table 56, Figures 44-49). Between
16 and 20, the boy who is married has a higher rate of total sexual outlet
(4.8 per week) than the males of any other group, and most of that outlet
(over 85%) is derived from his marital intercourse. The frequencies of the
intercourse in this teen-age group average near 4 (3.9) per week. From
there on, the mean frequencies drop in each successive five-year period.
The decline is at an astonishingly constant rate, from the youngest to the
oldest ages. By 60 years of age, the average frequency is about once (0.9)
per week.
PERCENT OF POPULATION PERCENTS FREOUENCY PER WEEK
254
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
AGE GROUPS
FIG.
1
— — R^W
■■■ U S
45
DATA
CORRECTIO
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
PCRC£NT OF TOTAL 00TL6T
TOTAL POPULATION
0 I 1 1 1 ^ \ I
“15 “20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Figures 44-46. Relation of age to marital intercourse
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
FREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
255
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
MEAN FREQUENCIES
ACTIVE POPULATION
RAW DATA
mm V S CORRECTION
-20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45
ACE GROUPS
-55 -60
RAW DATA
mmm U. S. CORRECTION
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
PERCENT OF TOTAL OUTLET
ACTIVE POPULATION
-55 -40
ACE CROUPS
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
MEDIAN FREQUENCIES
ACTIVE POPULATION
— RAW DATA
FIC. 49
-20 -25 -50 -55 -40 -45 -50 -5
ACE CROUPS
Figures 47-49. Relation of age to marital intercourse
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
Total Intercourse and Age
2
o
§
i
H
%of
Total
Outlet
00 rj- T-t VO . .
m 0^ VO OO VO . .
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irj VO
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l> 04 m Tf 04 04 . .
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ON in 0 - "tt ’-t o • •
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36.18 ± 1.61
35.41 =fc 0.77
38.75 ± 0.99
49.29 =i: 1.78
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57.68 4.14
66.56 =t 5.34
66.33 =i= 6.77
o
5
Me-
dian
Freq.
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s
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TOTAL P
Mean
Frequency
0.34 i 0.02
0.67 ± 0.03
0.75 ± 0.04
1.00 ± 0.08
1 02 =*= 0.13
0.92 ± 0.16
0.75 0.17
0.61 ± 0.16
cases
«nONF-'<0''cnOF-4VD
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AGE
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256
Table 57. Total heterosexual intercourse and age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51, on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
257
On the other hand, the average male draws a nearly constant proportion
of his total outlet throughout his life from marital intercourse. He gets
from 85 to 89 per cent of his outlet from that source between 16 and 55,
after which there is only a slight drop in the significance of marital inter-
course. Since his rate has gone down while he continues to draw a constant
portion of his total outlet from the intercourse, it is obvious that the de-
cline in frequency of this activity must occur at precisely the same rate as
the decline in the frequency of his total outlet.
Although biologic aging must be the main factor involved, it still is not
clear how often the conditions of marriage itself are responsible for this
decline in frequency of marital intercourse. Long-time marriage provides
the maximum opportunity for repetition of a relatively uniform sort of
experience. It is not surprising that there should be some loss of interest in
the activity among the older males, even if there were no aging process to
accelerate it.
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE AND AGE
Extra-marital intercourse, partly with companions and partly with
prostitutes, occurs among 23 to 37 per cent of the males in each of the
five-year periods. It is highest among the teen-age males, where 36.8 per
cent of the population is involved (Tables 54, 55, Figures 71-76). The ac-
cumulated number of males who have such intercourse at any time in their
lives is, of course, much higher (Chapter 19). The active incidence figure
stays remarkably constant between 21 and 60 years of age, with only a slight
trend toward a decline in the older years. The absence of an aging effect
on the incidence of the outlet is unique among all kinds of sexual activity.
The range of variation in any five-year population is greatest between
21 and 25 years of age (18 per week for the most active individuals), and
the maximum goes down rapidly after that (Table 49). By 60 years of age,
the most active individual has extra-marital intercourse only twice per
week.
Mean frequencies for the males who are actively involved in extra-
marital intercourse go down more or less steadily from about 1.3 per week
in the late twenties to about once in four weeks for the sixty-year olds.
The percentage of the total outlet which is derived from extra-marital
intercourse is highest in the 16-20-year period (9.6 per cent of the outlet
of the total population), after which there is a drop at least to age 45. Then,
only about 5 per cent of the outlet of the total married population comes
from this source. Considering only the males who are having some extra-
marital intercourse, the figures first drop and then rise — 18.4 per cent of the
outlet in the teen-age group, 12.3 per cent of the outlet in the 30-year
group, and possibly 41 per cent of the outlet in the 60-year group comes
from this intercourse with females not their wives. The rise in significance
of extra-marital intercourse, both in the total population and particularly
Homosexual Outlets and Age
VO m O «n rvj
r- fo <N
t>- r' o o
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r-t to O Ov • •
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r-i‘ d d d d d d
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d d VO* (N CN '-H
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t Tt cn ri ^ (
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o o o o o o o
rl CN C^ <N O
^ -H -H 41 ^ -fl -H
o o oo o Vi o
CN VO cn Vi Vj IV) t-h
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(Ti o O O T-H
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4] 41 4i -H 41 41 41
O (T) 00 r- VC
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^* d d d d d
Vi Vi VO OV 00 CS
00 d CO (N <N
^ CO o r- i> VO ^
cnoovovovoootj*
d d d d d o
8888888
d d d d d d d
Tt ^ ^ r-N v-( <N
o o o o o o
d d d d d d
41 41 41 41 41 41
O CO r4 CM r4
o o o o o
d d d d d d
c4 ^ r-- ov o cs VI
i> Vi CO VO ov
CN Vi CO <N
O Vi O Vi O Vi O
CN (N cn CO Tt Vi
a vi a 3 3 vA
■'-*( CN CS CO CO
258
Table 58. Homosexual outlets and age
For explanations, see the legend with Table 51 on Masturbation.
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
259
among males who are actually having such experience, is matched only by
the increased significance which pre-marital intercourse plays in the lives
of the older single males. Among married males, the rise in importance of
extra-marital intercourse is chiefly at the expense of marital intercourse
which contributes less and less to the total picture. The other outlets,
masturbation, nocturnal dreams, and the homosexual, are not so modified
by the extra-marital intercourse.
From about 7.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent of the extra-marital intercourse
is had with prostitutes (Table 55, Figures 77-82). The figures on the avail-
able histories fluctate from group to group, without a discernible aging
effect, at least up to age 60. The percentage of married males involved with
prostitutes drops steadily from 19.5 per cent among the young 20-year olds,
to 7.9 per cent at age 50. The frequencies among the active males stay
quite constant (between 0.18 and 0.27) at all ages, without any definite
trend. For males who have any extra-marital intercourse with prostitutes,
the contacts account for about 3.6 per cent of the total sexual outlet at
earlier ages. The significance of such intercourse increases with advancing
age among these males who are actively involved. It finally approaches a
figure which is nearly a fifth (18.4%) of the total outlet of these males in
their fifties. This increase in percent of total outlet derived from extra-
marital intercourse with prostitutes is in striking contrast with the lowered
incidences, frequencies, and significances, with advancing age, of most
other types of sexual activity. The meaning of this will be discussed in
Chapter 20.
The individuals who have extra-marital intercourse with prostitutes
most frequently are in the youngest age group, 16 to 20 years of age; but
since the percentage of the total sexual outlet which is drawn from that
source is lowest in the youngest group, and rises gradually to 50 years of
age, it is apparent that prostitutes are important in replacing other sources
of outlet among older males.
HOMOSEXUAL ACTIVITY AND AGE
Homosexual activity in the human male is much more frequent than is
ordinarily realized (Chapter 21). In the youngest unmarried group, more
than a quarter (27.3%) of the males have some homosexual activity to the
point of orgasm (Table 58, Figures 83-88). The incidence among these
single males rises in successive age groups until it reaches a maximum of
38.7 per cent between 36 and 40 years of age.
High frequencies do not occur as often in the homosexual as they do in
some other kinds of sexual activity (Table 49). Populations are more homo-
geneous in regard to this outlet. This may reflect the difficulties involved
in having frequent and regular relations in a socially taboo activity. Never-
theless, there are a few of the younger adolescent males who have homo-
Animal Contacts and Age
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Adol.-15
16-20
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260
AGE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
261
sexual frequencies of 7 or more per week, and between 26 and 30 the maxi-
mum frequencies run to 15 per week. By 50 years of age the most active
individual is averaging only 5.0 per week.
For single, active populations, the mean frequencies of homosexual
contacts (Table 58, Figures 83-88) rise more or less steadily from near once
per week (0.8 per week) for the younger adolescent boys to nearly twice
as often (1.7 per w^eek) for males between the ages of 3 1 and 35. They stand
above once a week through age 50.
In the population as a whole, among boys in their teens, about 8 per
cent of the total sexual outlet is derived from the homosexual. Calculating
only for the single males who are actually participating, the average active
male in his teens gets about 18 per cent of his outlet from that source, and
the figure is increasingly higher until, at 50 years of age, the average male
who is still single and actively involved gets 54 per cent of his outlet from
the homosexual This, and pre-marital intercourse with prostitutes, are
the only sources of outlet which become an increasing part of the sexual
activity of single males. For most other kinds of outlet, as we have shown,
the figures drop with advancing age. Since there is a steady decline in
frequency of total sexual outlet for the average male, and since there is an
increase both in frequencies and in percentage of total outlet derived from
the homosexual, it is obvious that this outlet acquires a definitely greater
significance, and a very real significance, in the lives of most unmarried
males who have anything at all to do with it. There is considerable con-
flict among younger males over participation in such socially taboo activ-
ity, and there is evidence that a much higher percentage of younger males
is attracted and aroused than ever engages in overt homosexual activities
to the point of orgasm. Gradually, over a period of years, many males who
are aroused by homosexual situations become more frank in their accep-
tance and more direct in their pursuit of complete relations (Chapter 21),
although some of them are still much restrained by fear of blackmail.
Homosexual contact as an extra-marital activity is recorded by about
10 per cent of the teen-age and young 20-year old married males. By 50
years of age, it is admitted by only 1 per cent of the still married males,
but this latter figure is undoubtedly below the fact. Average frequencies
fluctuate between once a week to once in two or three weeks for the married
males who have any such contacts; and there is no distinct age trend.
From 4 to 9 per cent of the total outlet of these married males is drawn
from the homosexual source, but again there is no apparent age trend.
ANIMAL CONTACTS AND AGE
Contacts between the human and animals of other species are largely
confined to the rural portions of the male population. Rural-urban back-
grounds are, consequently, the most important factors in determining the
262
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
incidence and frequency of this sort of outlet. Animal contacts include the
usual type of heterosexual intercourse and also anal and oral techniques
which provide orgasm for the human males. The present calculations in-
clude all three types of relations.
There are some data which indicate that the frequency of animal con-
tacts varies tremendously in different parts of the United States. The fig-
ures given here apply primarily to the northeastern quarter of the country.
About 6 per cent of the total male population is involved in animal
contacts during early adolescence (Table 59). This is the highest inci-
dence figure at any age. The figure drops to about 1 per cent in the single
population over 20 years of age. If only the unmarried rural population is
considered, the incidence figures range from 11 per cent at 11-15 years of
age to 4 per cent at 25 years of age. Differences in social level affect this
activity, and the figures need further analyses on that basis (Table 124).
The maximum frequencies in animal intercourse (for the most active
individual) go up to 8.0 per week for the population between adolescence
and 15 years of age (Table 49). The most active cases in the next age group
drop to 4.0 per week, and to 0.1 per week by 30 years of age.
Animal intercourse has the lowest frequencies of all the sources that
contribute to sexual outlet. For the total population (including persons
who never engage in the activity) the average never rises above once or
twice in a year; but for those who actually utilize this source of outlet,
the frequency is about twice in three weeks (0.69 per week) in the late
teens. There are too few active cases to generalize for older groups. The
average boy who is having animal intercourse draws 7 per cent of his total
outlet from fhat source in his early teens, and nearly 15 per cent of his
outlet from that source between ages 21 and 25. There are cases of animal
intercourse that extend with some frequency into the fifties, and in one
case past 80 years of age. In general, the picture is one of decreasing inci-
dence, decreasing frequency, and decreasing significance in the later years ;
but the cases are so few and the rural-urban factors are so significant, that
these data are not readily interpreted without further breakdown.
POST-MARITAL OUTLETS AND AGE
Among the males who have been married, but whose marriages have
been terminated by death, separation, or divorce, there is sexual activity
which in frequency is considerably above that of the single male, and nearly
as high as among the married males. The effects of aging are, of course,
apparent in this group. The detailed record is given in Chapter 8 on Marital
Status and Sexual Outlet.
Chapter 8
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
Among the social factors affecting sexual activity, marital status is the
one that would seem most likely to influence both the frequencies and
the sources of the individual’s outlet. The data, however, need detailed
analyses.
SOCIAL AND LEGAL LIMITATIONS
In social and religious philosophies, there have been two antagonistic
interpretations of sex. There have been cultures and religions which have
inclined to the hedonistic doctrine that sexual activity is justifiable for its
immediate and pleasurable return; and there have been cultures and reli-
gions which accept sex primarily as the necessary means of procreation,
to be enjoyed only in marriage, and then only if reproduction is the goal
of the act. The Hebrews were among the Asiatics who held this ascetic
approach to sex; and Christian sexual philosophy and English- American
sex law is largely built around these Hebraic interpretations, around Greek
ascetic philosophies, and around the asceticism of some of the Roman
cults (Angus 1925, May 1931).
A third possible interpretation of sex as a normal biologic function,
acceptable in whatever form it is manifested, has hardly figured in either
general or scientific discussions. By English and American standards, such
an attitude is considered primitive, materialistic or animalistic, and be-
neath the dignity of a civilized and educated people. Freud has contributed
more than the biologists toward an adoption of this biologic viewpoint.
Since English-American moral codes and sex laws are the direct out-
come of the reproductive interpretation of sex, they accept no form of
socio-sexual activity outside of the marital state; and even marital inter-
course is more or less limited to particular times and places and to the
techniques which are most likely to result in conception. By this system,
no socio-sexual outlet is provided for the single male or for the widowed or
divorced male, since they cannot legally procreate; and homosexual and
solitary sources of outlet, since they are completely without reproductive
possibilities, are penalized or frowned upon by public opinion and by the
processes of the law.
Specifically, English-American legal codes restrict the sexual activity of
the unmarried male by characterizing all pre-marital, extra-marital, and
post-marital intercourse as rape, statutory rape, fornication, adultery,
263
264
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
prostitution, association with a prostitute, incest, delinquency, a contri-
bution to delinquency, assault and battery, or public indecency — all of
which are offenses with penalties attached. However it is labelled, all
intercourse outside of marriage (non-marital intercourse) is illicit and sub-
ject to penalty by statute law in most of the states of the Union, or by the
precedent of the common law on which most courts, in all states, chiefly
depend when sex is involved. In addition to their restrictions on hetero-
sexual intercourse, statute law and the common law penalize all homo-
sexual activity, and all sexual contacts with animals; and they specifically
limit the techniques of marital intercourse. Mouth-genital and anal con-
tacts are punishable as crimes whether they occur in heterosexual or homo-
sexual relations and whether in or outside of marriage. Such manual
manipulation as occurs in the petting which is common in the younger
generation has been interpreted in some courts as an impairment of the
morals of a minor, or even as assault and battery. The public exhibition of
any kind of sexual activity, including self masturbation, or the viewing of
such activity, is punishable as a contribution to delinquency or as public
indecency.
There have been occasional court decisions which have attempted to
limit the individual’s right to solitary masturbation; and the statutes of at
least one state (Indiana Acts 1905, ch. 169, § 473, p. 584) rule that the
encouragement of self masturbation is an offense punishable* as sodomy.
Under a literal interpretation of this law, it is possible that a teacher,
biologist, psychologist, physician or other person who published the
scientifically determinable fact that masturbation does no physical harm
might be prosecuted for encouraging some person to “commit masturba-
tion.” There have been penal commitments of adults who have given sex
instruction to minors, and there are evidently some courts who are inclined
to interpret all sex instruction as a contribution to the delinquency of
minors. In state controlled penal and mental institutions, and in homes
for dependent children, the administrations are authorized to establish
rules of sexual behavior which go beyond the definitions of courtroom law
It is the usual practice in such institutions to impose penalties, including
physical punishment, for masturbation, and we have histories from at least
two institutions which imposed equally severe penalties for nocturnal
emissions. The United States Naval Academy at Annapolis considers evi-
dence of masturbation sufficient grounds for refusing admission to a can-
didate (U. S. Naval Acad. Regul., June 1940). It is probable that the courts
would defend the right of the administrators of institutions to impose such
ultimate restrictions upon the sexual outlets of their charges.
Concepts of sexual perversion depend in part on this same reproductive
interpretation of sex. Sodomy laws are usually indefinite in their descrip-
tions of acts that are punishable; perversions are defined as unnatural acts,
acts contrary to nature, bestial, abominable, and detestable. Such laws are
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
265
interpretable only in accordance with the ancient tradition of the English
common law which, as has already been indicated, is committed to the
doctrine that no sexual activity is justifiable unless its objective is procrea-
tion.
Official church attitudes toward contraception and abortion similarly
stem from the demand that there be no interference with reproduction.
They are consistent in denying the use of contraceptives in marriage and in
intercourse which is outside of marriage, for intercourse outside of mar-
riage is illegal and not a legitimate source of procreation. Medical and
presumably scientific data which are adduced in support of the objections
to contraception and abortion, are rationalizations or confusions of the
real issue, which is the reproductive value of any kind of sexual behavior.
In addition to establishing restrictions by way of the statutory and com-
mon law, society at large, and each element in it, have developed mores
that even more profoundly affect the frequency of sexual activity and the
general pattern of behavior. Some of the community attitudes fortify cer-
tain of the legal interpretations, even though no segment of society accepts
the whole of the legal code, as its behavior and expressed attitudes demon-
strate (Chapter 10). Often the social proscriptions involve more than
is in the law, and the individual who conforms with the traditions of the
social level to which he belongs, is restricted in such detail as the written
codes never venture to cover. Group attitudes become his “conscience,”
and he accepts group interpretations, thinking them the product of his
own wisdom. Each type of sex act acquires values, becomes right or wrong,
socially useful or undesirable. Esthetic values are attached: limitations
are set on the times and places where sexual relations may be had; the
social niceties (and the law) forbid the presence of witnesses to sexual acts ;
there are standards of physical cleanhness and supposed requirements of
hygiene and sanitation which may become more important than the grati-
fication of sexual drives; the forms of courtesy between men and women
may receive especial attention when sexual relations are involved; the
effect of the relations upon the sexual partner, the effect upon the subse-
quent sexual, marital, or business relations with the partner, the effect
upon the subject’s own self esteem or subsequent mental or physical happi-
ness, or conflict — may all be involved in the decision to have, or not to
have, a socio-sexual relation. While the decision seems to rest upon per-
sonal desires, ideals, and concepts of esthetics, the individual’s standards
are very largely set by the mores of the social level to which he belongs. In
the end, their effect is strongly to limit his opportunity for intercourse, or
for most other types of sexual activity, especially if he is unmarried, wid-
owed, separated, or divorced.
A lower level male has fewer esthetic demands and social forms to
satisfy. By the time he becomes an adolescent, he has learned that it is
266
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
age
CASES
MEAN FREQUENCY
GROUP
Single
Married
Post-
marital
Single
Married
Post-
mantal
Adol.-15
3012
2.91
16-20
2868
272
46
2.88
4.67
4.08
21-25
1535
751
119
2.67
3.90
3.70
26-30
550
737
182
2.63
3.27
2.93
31-35
195
569
158
2.38
2.73
1.93
36-40
97
390
128
2.07
2.46
1.69
41-45
56
272
96
1.79
1.95
1.49
46-50
39
175
63
1.88
1.79
1.26
51-55
109
42
1
1.54
1.17
56-60
67
1.08
i
Active Cases in Sample Population
age
INCIDENCE %
MEAN FREQUENCY
GROUP
Single
Married
Post-
marital
Single
Married
Post-
marital
Adol.-15
95.1
3.06
16-20
99.2
100.0
97.8
2.90
4.67 j
4.17
21-25
99.1
100.0
98.3
2.70
3.90
3.76
26-30
99,3
100.0
97.3
2.65
3.27
3.01
31-35
99.0 I
100.0
94.9
2.40
2.73
2.04
36-40
97.9
99.7
97.7
2.12
2.47
1.73
41^5
96.4
100.0
93.7
1.85
1.95
1.59
46-50
92.3
98.9
93.7
2.04
1.81
1.35
51-55
98,2
88.1
1.57
j 1.33
56-60
98.5
1.09
Corrected for U. S. Population
total population I
I
ACTIVE POPULATION
age
GROUP
MEAN FREQUENCY
INCIDENCE %
MEAN FREQUENCY
Single
Married
Single
Married
Single
Married
Adol.-15
3.17
94.2
3.36
16-20
3.30
4.83
98.8
100.0
3.35
4.83
21-25
3.04
4.14
97.9
100.0
3.11
4.14
26-30
2.94
3.51
98.6
100.0
2.98
3.51
31-35
2.44
2.90
99.2
100.0
2.46
2.90
36-40
2.00
2.42
98.5
99.9
2.04
2.42
41-45
1.95
100.0
1.95
46-50
1.80
98.1
1.83
51-55
1.54
97.2
1.58
Table 60. Total outlet in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels which is shown in the U. S. Census for 1940.
For sigmas of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
WEEK FREQUENCY PER WEEK FREQUENCY
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
TOTAL OUTLET
TOTAt OUTLET
MCOIAN frReOUENCICS
ACTIVE 'POPULATION
I RAW DATA f
P<I5T- MARITAL
A6E GROUPS
Figures 50-52. Relation of age and marital status to frequency of total outlet
Solid lilies represent the U. S. Corrections.
268
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
possible to josh any passing girl, ask for a simple social date, and, inside
of a few minutes, suggest intercourse. Such financial resources as will
provide a drink, tickets for a movie, or an automobile ride, are at that level
sufficient for making the necessary approaches. Such things are impossible
for most better educated males. Education develops a demand for more
elaborate recreation and more extended social contacts. The average col-
lege male plans repeated dates, dinners, expensive entertainments, and
long-time acquaintances before he feels warranted in asking for a complete
sexual relation. There is, in consequence, a definitely greater limitation on
the heterosexual activities of the educated portion of the population, and
a higher frequency of solitary outlets in that group. Upper level males
rationalize their lack of socio-sexual activities in terms of right and wrong,
but it is certain that the social formalities have a great deal to do with
their chastity.
In any case, at any social level, the human animal is more hampered in
its pursuit of sexual contacts than the primitive anthropoid in the wild;
and, at any level, the restrictions would appear to be most severe for males
who are not married. One should expect, then, that the sexual histories of
unmarried males would contrast sharply with the histories of married
adults; and that, at the end of two thousand years of social monitoring,
at least some unmarried males might be found who follow the custom and
the law and live abstinent, celibate, sublimated, and wholly chaste lives.
Scientists will, however, want to examine the specific data showing the
effect of marital status on the human male’s total sexual outlet, and on his
choice of particular outlets (if he has any) in his single, married, or post-
marital states.
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
The mean frequencies of total sexual outlet for the married males are
always, at all age levels, higher than the total outlets for single males; but,
as already pointed out (Chapter 6), essentially all single males have regular
and usually frequent sexual outlet, whether before marriage, or after being
widowed, separated, or divorced. Of the more than five thousand males
who have contributed to the present study, only 1 per cent has lived for as
much as five years (after the onset of adolescence and outside of old age)
without orgasm.
As previously recorded, the mean frequency of the total outlet for the
single males between 16 and 20 is (on the basis of the U. S. Corrections)
about 3.3 per week (Table 60, Figures 50-52). The mean frequency of
total outlet for the married male is about 4.8 per week, which is 47 per
cent above the average outlet of the single male At 30, the frequencies
for the married males are about 18 per cent above those of the single
males, and approximately this relation holds for some period of years.
Beyond 40 years of age, the single males may actually exceed the married
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
269
males in their sexual frequencies. In adolescent years, the restrictions upon
the sexual activity of the unmarried male are greatest. He finds it more
difficult to locate sources of outlet and he has not learned the techniques
for approaching and utilizing those sources when they are available.
Nevertheless, his frequency between adolescence and 16 does average
about 3.0 per week and between 16 and 20 it amounts to nearly 3.4 per
week. This represents arousal that leads to orgasm on an average of about
every other day. By the time he is 30, the single male has become much
more efficient in his social approaches and does not lag far behind the
married individual in his performance. Considering the physical advantage
which the married individual has in securing intercourse without going
outside of his own home, it is apparent that the older single male develops
skills in making social approaches and finding places for sexual contacts
which far exceed the skills of married persons. Beau Brummels and Casa-
novas are not married males. A few of the married males who are involved
in promiscuous extra-marital activity are the only ones whose facilities
begin to compare with those found among unmarried groups. It is notable
that in the male homosexual, where long-time unions are not often main-
tained and new partners are being continually sought, there are many per-
sons who preserve this same facihty for making social contacts for long
periods of years.
The differences that exist between the total activities of the younger
married male and the younger unmarried male are, to some degree, a
measure of the effectiveness of the social pressures that keep the single
male’s performance below his native capacity; although the lower rates
in the single males may depend, in part, upon the possibility that less
responsive males may not marry so young, or may never marry. On the
other hand, the fact that the single male, from adolescence to 30 years of
age, does have a frequency of nearly 3.0 per week is evidence of the ineffec-
tiveness of social restrictions and of the imperativeness of the biologic
demands. For those who like the term, it is clear that there is a sexual
drive which cannot be set aside for any large portion of the population,
by any sort of social convention. For those who prefer to think in simpler
terms of action and reaction, it is a picture of an animal who, however
civilized or cultured, continues to respond to the constantly present sexual
stimuli, albeit with some social and physical restraints.
In addition to the differences in frequencies of total outlet between
married and single males, there are minor differences in incidence and in
range of variation in the groups. Between adolescence and 15 years of age,
95 per cent of the unmarried boys have some sort of sexual outlet. From
16 to 35 years of age, 99 per cent or more of these males are engaging in
some form of sexual activity (Table 60). Among the married males, a full
100 per cent is sexually active between 16 and 35 years of age. Beyond
PERCgNT OF POPULATIOM PERCENT^ FREQUENCY PER WEEK
270
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
MASTURBATION
-<5 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
0 1 : 2 ::::,:: T.l , 1 I I I "M I \
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
ACE GROUPS
AGE GROUPS
Figures 53-55. Relation of age and marital status to masturbation
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
FReaUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREaUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
271
MASTURBATION
A<3E GROUPS
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0
Figures 56-58. Relation of age and marital status to masturbation
masturbation
M EDI AM FAEDUEN
ACTIVE POPULAT
CIES
ON
SIN6LE
\
\
H'Z: RA\
FIG,
N PATA
5S
\
\
\
— Sc :
•V.
■ *s.
POST'M/
MARRifi
VRiTAL
cr:-:
D
—
—
'
(S -20 “25 “30 *“55 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AG 6 OROyPS
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
Masturbation, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
age
cases
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% OF
total outlet
group
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Adol.-15
3012
2.02
70.33
16-20
2868
272
46
1.46
0.17
0.36
51.28
3.63
9.01
21-25
1535
751
119
1.10
0.21
0.28
41.95
5.52
7.61
26-30
550
737
182
0.94
0.20
0.25
36.40
6.19
8.72
31-35
195
569
158
0.73
0.16
0.16
31.29
6.03
8.35
36-40
97
390
128
0.76
0.13
0.17
37.32
1 5.22
9.71
41-45
56
272
96
0.61
0.11
0.20
35.19
5.64
13.28
46-50
39
175
63
0.62
0.09
0.23
33.13
5.11
18.39
51-55
109
42
0.10
0.14
6.35
11.49
56-60
67
0.04
4.06
Active Cases in Sample Population
AGE
GROUP
^ incidence %
mean frequency I
% OF
TOTAL outlet
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar.
Adol.-15
85.4
2.36
77.94
16-20
88.4
39.0
56.5
1.66
0.43
0.64
60.23
9.91
17.13
21-25
80.7
47.8
44.5
1.37
0.45
0.62
54.40
12.15
26.25
26-30
77.1
47.9
44.0
1.22
0.42
0.58
47.34
12.50
24.00
31-35
71.3
45.5
38.6
1.02
0.36
0.42
40.43
12.44
28.25
36^0
62.9
36.7
42.2
1.20
0.35 1
0.39
47.06 j
12.41 i
30.59
41-45
60.7
32.7
3^.3
1.01
0.34
0.59
43.66
12.66
32.06
46-50
53.8
30.9
44.4
1.15
0.30
0.52
37.88
14.94
36.57
51-55
25.7
33.3
0.38
0.41
18.18
29.43
56-60
19.4
0.22
20.86
Corrected for U. S. Population
total population
active population
AGE
GROUP
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
incidence %
mean
FREQUENCY
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sm-
Mar-
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
Adol.-15
1.86
60.22
87.2
2.14
71.02
16-20
1.23
0.14
38.50
2.95
87.7
37.1
1.40
0.38
47.76
8.29
21-25
0.06
0.17 1
29.52
4.40
73.6
42.1
1.16
0.42
^3.12
9.40
26-30
0.75
0.16
26.94
4.57
73.9
36.5
1.02
0.43
39.12
11.34
31-35
0.59
0.11
24.94
3.79
67.6
32.8
0.88
0.34
34.03
10.25
36-40
0.58
0.07
29.09
2.95
57.7
22.2
1.01
0.33
41.30
13.17
41-45
0.05
2.43
15.0
0.32
11.80
46-50
0.05
2.53
13.6
0.33
16.29
51-55
0.03
2.13
11.4
0.34
12.09
Table 61. Masturbation in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET 273
35, the incidence figures drop for single males, and at a somewhat faster
rate than for married males. The differences are not great.
The range of variation in frequency of outlet in any particular age
group is also nearly identical for single and married males. In both popu-
lations (Table 49), there are individuals who engage in sexual activity only
a few times a year, and there are some who engage in sexual activities
regularly 3 or 4 or more times per day (29 or more per week). The lower
average rates for single males are not dependent upon the fact that there
are no high-rating individuals in that group, but upon the fact that there
is a larger number of the single males who have lower rates, and a larger
number of married males who have higher rates. At least half of the
younger married males have outlets which average 3 or more per week,
whereas only a third of the single males fall into that category.
Throughout both single and married histories, there is a steady decline
in total sexual outlet in successive age groups (Chapter 7). After 30 years
of age this decline in any 5-year period (Figures 50-52) is very nearly as
great as the differences between married and single males of the same age
group. Age is eventually as important as all of the social, moral, and legal
factors which differentiate single from married histories.
SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
Every one of the possible sources of sexual outlet is to be found in both
single and married histories, except as the activities are limited by definition
(as in the case of pre-marital intercourse and extra-marital intercourse).
The primary forces determining which particular outlets are utilized are
the mores of the social level in which the individual is raised (Chapter 10).
Nevertheless, marital status is a prime factor in regard to certain of the
outlets.
Masturbation, although it is found in practically all male histories, is
very much restricted by the conventions of particular social groups. In all
groups, however, it is much more frequent in single histories. It provides
about three-quarters (71%) of the sexual outlet for about 85 per cent of the
single males below 15 years of age (Table 61, Figures 53-58). The figure
is lower for lower educational levels (52.3% for boys who never go beyond
eighth grade) and higher (79.6%) for boys who will ultimately go to college
(Chapter 10). Between 16 and 20, the incidence begins to go down for all
levels, although up until marriage masturbation remains the chief source
of sexual outlet for unmarried males who belong to that portion of the
population that goes to college. The unmarried males who are actually in
college draw nearly two-thirds of their total sexual outlet from masturba-
tion, while pre-marital intercourse accounts for little more than a tenth
of the outlet of the group (Table 64). On the other hand, for boys who never
get beyond the eighth grade in school, masturbation provides a little more
FREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
275
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
-15 -20 -25 - 50 -35 -40 -45 - 50 - 55 -60
AGE GROUPS
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
0.5
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
PE nee NT OF TOTAL OUTLET
ACTIVE POPULATION
s.
SINGLE
—
>
V'.
F16.
63
POST- fjJ/i
••••****
/
/
/
MARRIEC
>
'
/
/
TA
LRECTtON
Tj
RAW DA
1 U 5 COR
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45
AGE GROUPS
-50 -55
-60
0.4
0.5
0.2
0.1
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
MEDIAN FREAUENCfES
ACTIVE POPULATION
FIS
W DATA
64
SINGLE^
s.^
POST'Nl/
VRITAL
'•s.
MARRIEI
D
- — — ■ —
—
-15 -20
-25
-30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55
AGE GROUPS
-60
Figures 62-64. Relation of age and marital status to nocturnal emissions
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
276
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
AGE
group
CASES
mean frequency
% OF TOTAL outlet
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
AdoL-15
3012
0.22
7.80
16-20
2868
272
46
0.32
0.13
0.17
11.29
2.85
4.27
21-25
1535
751
119
0.33
0.14
0.16
12.40
3.68
4.44
26-30
550
737
182
0.28
0 14
0.17
10.67
4.29
5.79
31-35
195
569
158
0.19
0.12
0.10
8 11
4.54
4.89
36-40
97
390
128
0.12
0.11
0.08
5.93
4.40
4.90
41-45
56
272
96
0.08
0.09 ^
0.08
4.73
4.50
5.53
46-50
39
175
63
0.07
0.07
0.08
3.51
3.91
5.96
51-55
109
42
0.07
0.05
4.42
4.13
56-60
67
0.03
2.73
Active Cases in Sample Population
AGE
incidence %
MEAN FREQUENCY
?o or
TOTAL OUTLET
GROUP
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Adol.-15
16-20
52.2
80.3
52.9
69.6
0.43
0.40
0.25
0.25
26.49
21.72
5.57
11.59
21-25
80.8
59.0
62.2
0.40
0.24
0.26
23.47
6.49
10.33
26-30
78.7
62.6
63.7
0.35
0.22
0.26
22.98
6.49
12.55
31-35
70.8
60.6
58.2
0.27
0.20
0.16
21.68
7.18
12.35
36-40
59.8
53.3
53.9
0.20
0.20
0.16
19.12
6.80
17.09
41-45
48.2
54,4
38.5
0.17
0.16
0.21
19.48
7.49
21.58
46-50
28.2
48.0
31.7
0.23
0.15
0.24
19.59
9.40
21.25
51-55
56-60
44.0
28.4
26.2
0.15
0.10
0.19
7.90
13.79
10.27
Corrected for U. S. Population
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE
MEAN
% OF TOTAL
mean
^ OF
TOTAL
GROUP
FREQUENCY
OUTTLET
INCIDENCE 7o ]
FREQUENCY
OUTLET
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
g'e
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
Adol.-15
0.14
4.55
39.1
0.36
19.97
16-20
0.23
0.12
7.41
2.52
70.2
53.3
0.33 '
0.23
15.53
5.17
21-25
0.24
0.12
8.28
3.09
70.9
58.4
0.34
0.21
17.36
5.45
26-30
0.22
0.13
7.92
3.65
69.9
50.8
0.32
0.23
17.86
6.00
31-35
0.17
0.11
7.34
3.73
64.3
51.5
0.27
0.21
21.50
6.56
36-40
0.10
0.08
5.17
3.24
56.4
42.1
0.18
0.19
16.17
5.99
41-45
0.07
3.55
41.1
0.18
6.08
46-50
0.06
2.97
34.9
0.15
9.79
51-55
0.06
3.50
30.4
0.18
10.06
Table 62 . Nocturnal emissions in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
277
than a quarter (29.2%) of the sexual outlet in their late teens. As soon as
marriage occurs, the incidence and frequency of masturbation drop con-
siderably in all social levels. Among college-bred males over two-thirds
(69%) of the married men have some self masturbation in their histories.
The frequencies in married histories are, however, definitely low, and there
are few individuals who have rates that exceed once or twice per week.
At lower educational levels only about a third of the married males (29%
to 42% in various groups) ever masturbate, and the frequencies are much
lower than in upper levels, averaging not a quarter as high as in the cor-
responding group of single males.
Nocturnal emissions vary in frequency in different social levels, the figures
being higher for upper level males and lower for more poorly educated
males. They reach their highest incidence in single males between 21 and 30
years of age. About 85 per cent of the single males have at least some experi-
ence with nocturnal dreams that lead to climax (Table 133, Figures 138-
139). Hardly more than half of the married males (58.4%) have nocturnal
emissions in any particular age group. In younger single males (of the total
population), the emissions occur twice as often as among married males of
the same age (Table 62, Figures 59-64). In older groups, the incidences
and frequencies of nocturnal emissions in married males are about two-
thirds of what they are in single males. This, in conjunction with the higher
rates of total sexual outlet in the married groups, means that nocturnal
dreams provide 5 to 15 per cent of the outlet of the single males, but only
2 to 6 per cent of the outlet of the married males. The lower percentages are
in lower educational levels, the higher percentages in upper educational
levels (Chapter 10).
Pre-marital petting as a source of outlet is, by definition, restricted to
the single male. The incentives for petting to the point of climax are chiefly
those of avoiding pre-marital intercourse (at the social levels where such
intercourse is taboo), and initiating sexual relations by way of an activity
which is simpler than actual coitus (Chapter 16). There are some married
males who engage in such petting to the point of climax with their wives,
and there are some upper level males who engage in extra-marital petting
with women other than their wives. At lower social levels, pre-marital
petting to the point of cHmax is relatively rare, and there are few records
of the occurrence of such behavior in marriage among the poorly educated
groups.
Heterosexual intercourse is the chief pre-marital outlet of the lower
social level, although it is a lesser source of outlet for the college-bred
portion of the population. Between 16 and 20, it occurs in about 85 per
cent of the pre-marital histories of the males who never go beyond eighth
grade in school, but it occurs in only 42 per cent of the males who go to
college (Table 85, Figure 101). Between 20 and 30, pre-marital intercourse
PERCENT OF POPULATION PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
278
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
ACE CROUPS
100
MARRIED
-IS -20 -25
-35 -40
AGE GROUPS
-60
100
60
60
40
20
—
•••
kRITAt
MAR
“ni
/
SINGLE
—
A
0 ^^
1
/
/
1
DATA
CORRECTK
5N
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
1 INCfiDENCE
1 FIS, 67 1
-15 -20 -25
-50
-55 -40
AGE GROUPS
-45
-50
-55
-60
Figures 65-67. Relation of age and marital status to total intercourse
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
PREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
279
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
MARRIED
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
MEAN FflEaUENCtES
ACTIVE POPULATION
RAW DATA
US CORRECTION
5.0 \ POST-MARITAL
-15 -ZO -25 -30
-55 -40 -45 -SO -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
MARRIED
PDST'MARITAL ’
SINGLE
RAW DATA '
■■■■ 0 S CORRECTION
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
PeRCCNT OF TOTAL OUTLET
ACTIVE POPULATION
■15 -20
-35 -40 *^45 -50
AGE GROUPS
3.0 h MARRIED -
2.0 POST- MARITAL -
****••••.,
1.0
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
MEDIAN FREQUENCIES
ACTIVE, POPUtATION
FIG. 70
L
**^ ***""
—
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -6
AGE GROUPS
Figures 68-70. Relation of age and marital status to total intercourse
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
280
SEXUAL BEILA.VIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Intercourse, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
AGE
cases
MEAT
■vl FREQUENCY
% OF
total outlet
GROUP
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Adol.-15
3925
0.34
14.51 !
16-20
3739
279
48
0.67
4.27
3.06
27.91 1
91.31
82.28
21-25
2121
766
150
0.75
3.46
3.08
33.38 1
89.96
80.12
26-30
607
792
192
1.00
2.90
2.28
34.37 1
88.83
80.11
31-35
223
623
171
1.02
2.48
1.58
36.11
88.76
81.63
36-40
110
442
146
0.92
2.22
1.37
33.83
89.72
82.45
41-45
61
306
107
0.75
1.89
1.22
33.75
89.00
76.78
46-50
36
197
72
0.61
1.76
1.05
30.58
89.57
75.64
51-55
123
43
1.49
0.96
88.43
84.38
56-60
73
33
1.09
0.62
92.09
Active Cases in Sample Population
age
INCIDENCE
%
MEAN FREQUENCY
% OF
TOT.AL OUTLET
group
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
I Post-
mar-
1 ital
Adol.-15
16-20
21.7
53.6
100.0
95.8
1.56
1.25
4.27
3.19
36.18
35,41
91.64 !
81.64
21-25
60.7
99.9
94.7
1.24
3.46
3.26
38.75
89.54
79.48
26-30
66.1
99.7
95.3
1.51
2.91
2.39
49.29
89.17
78.60
31-35
67.7
99.7
91.2
1.50
2.49
1.73
: 58.46
89.45
80.92
36-40
70.0
99.1
91.8
1.32
2.24
1.49
57.68
90.87
80.37
41-45
65.6
99.7
86.0
1.14
1.89
1.42
66.56
91.56
85.09
46-50
66.7
98.0
81.9
0.91
1.79
1.28
66.33
90.33
83.25
51-55
56-60
97.6
97.3
88.4
78.8
1.53
1.12
1.09
0.79
90.50 i
91.31 ;
84.18
88.00
Corrected for U. S. Population
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE
MEAN
% OF TOTAL
MEAN
% OF
TOTAL
GROUP
FREQUENCY
OUTLET
FREQUENCY
OUTLET
Sin- Mar-
Sin- Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin- Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
gle ried
gle ried
gle
ried
gle ned
gle
ried
Adol.-15
0.79 1
26.17
39.9
1.98
43.38
16-20
1.35 4.51
42.82 92.22
73.7
100.0
1.84 4.51
50.97
92.53
21-25
1.37 3.73
50.33 91.66
75.0
100.0
1.82 3.73
55.64
91.97
26-30
1.34 3.17
45.44 91.05
75.4
99.8
1.77 3.18
57.11
90.99
31-35
1.11 2.72
45.12 91.76
72.2
99.9
1.53 2.72
62.84
91.66
36-40
1.00 2.28
43.72 93.29
80.8
99.0
1.23 2.32
59.66
93.31
41-45
2.04
93.78
99.9
2.04
94.43
46-50
1.87
94.25
98.0
1.91
93.09
51-55
1.48
94.14
96.4
1.54
94.45
Table 63. Total intercourse in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
281
accounts for about two-thirds (57.6% to 68.2%) of the outlet of the males
who have not gone beyond eighth grade, although in that same period it
accounts for only a fifth (19.4% to 21.4%) of the outlet of the college males.
In marriage, practically 100 per cent of the males of all social levels
engage in heterosexual intercourse, except as advancing age limits the
activity of some individuals after 45 (Table 56). Among married males of
lower educational levels, more than 95 per cent of the total outlet (at 31
to 55 years of age) is derived from intercourse with the spouse or with
other females (Table 97, Figures 131-133). Among college-bred males of
the same ages, little more than 80 per cent of the total outlet comes from
that source. The average for the total married population is about 87 per
cent between 31 and 55 years of age. The frequencies of marital coitus
are two or three times as high as in the intercourse of the single male
(Table 56, Figures 65-70).
For the total married population, of all social levels, about 85 per cent
of the sexual outlet comes from the intercourse with the wife (Table 56,
Figures 44-49). It will surprise most people that this figure is not higher.
Masturbation, nocturnal emissions, heterosexual intercourse with per-
sons other than the wife, homosexual contacts, and animal intercourse
provide the remaining 15 per cent of the activity. The proportion derived
from marital intercourse varies from 81.4 per cent between 16 and 20
years, to 88.3 per cent at 45 years of age, after which it again drops. In
view of the rather high frequency of extra-marital intercourse among
lower social levels, it is interesting to find that the highest percentage of
outlet derived from the intercourse with the wife (95.5%) is found among
those persons who have not gone beyond the twelfth grade in school, and
the lowest percentage (61.9%) among older males who have gone to college
(Table 97). Whether or not it is true, as some students contend, that mar-
riage as an institution has resulted from the demand for regular inter-
course, it is apparent that marriage does provide a more convenient source
of sexual activity than is to be had in any other state.
A part of the heterosexual intercourse of the married males is with
females other than their wives. This provides 5 to 10 per cent of the total
sexual outlet of the married population taken as a whole (Table 64, Figures
71-76). In the youngest age groups, 37 per cent of the males are having
extra-marital intercourse, but this figure cuts down to 30 per cent by 50
years of age.
Among single males, in the population as a whole, prostitutes provide
8.6 per cent of the heterosexual intercourse between 16 and 20 years of
age. In successive five-year periods, the percentage rises to 13.3, to 22.0, to
28.9 per cent, and (by age 40) to 38.7 per cent. There is some rise in signifi-
cance of prostitutes among older males of all social levels, although the
group that goes to college never derives as much as 1 per cent of its total
FREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
283
NON-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
POST' MARITAL
3*5
5.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
|,o|-MARRI?D
HON-NARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
I MEAN FREaUENCIES
1 r ACTIVE POPULATION T
RAW DATA
mam U S CORRECTION
“15 “20 “25 “50 -35 -40 “45 -50 * 55 -60
ACE CROUPS
50 I
NON'MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
PERCENT OF TOTAL OUTLET
POST- MARITAL I ACTIVE POPULATION ,
POST- MARITAL
*****..^
^
'SINGLE ■
.MARRI6I
>
tl’i: RAW DATA
MM U 5 CORRECTION
-15 -20 -25 -50 -35 -40 -45 - 50 - 55 - 60
AGE GROUPS
NON* MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
MEDIAN FDEQUENCtES
1 ACTIVE POPULATION i
POST- MARITAL
\
\
SINGLE
MARRIED ' — — —
^
—
: RAW DATA
[-FIG. 7Gi —
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Figures 74-76. Relation of age and marital status to non-marital intercourse with
companions
Solid lines renresent the TJ. vS. Corrections.
284
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Kon-Marital Intercourse, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
AGE
cases
mean frequency
% OF
total outlet
GROUP
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
Adol.-15
3012 j
0.40
14.12
16-20
2868 1
288
46
0.73
0.41
3.19
25.43
9.08
79.91
21-25
1535
813
119
0.77
0.30
2.79
29.46
7.44
76.87
26-30
550 1
850
182
0.73
0.16
2.13
28.23
4.71 '
73.65
31-35
195
666
158
0.61
0.15
1.37
26.44
5.35 :
70 29
36-40
97
475
128
0.42
0.20
1.17
20.80
7.69 i
68.64
41-45
56
324
96
0.40
0.13
0.85
23.10
5.24 !
57.82
46-50
39
210
63
0.28
0.19
0.76
14.81
8.61 f
60.39
51-55
130
42
0.17
0.88
9.88 1
74.60
56-60
77
0.14
12.05 1
Active Cases in Sample Population
incidence %
group
Pre-
mar-
ital
Extra-
mar-
ital
Post-
mar-
ital
Adol.-15
16-20
24.3
52.4
35.4
93.5
21-25
58.5
24.4
95.8
26-30
59.5
26.0
89.6
31-35
57.4
28.4
81.6
36-40
53.6
27.8
80.5
41-45
51.8
23,5
68.8
46-50
51.3
25.2
66,7
51-55
22.3
71.4
56-60
22.1 1
% OF total outlet
ra-
Post-
mar-
ital
n
ir-
il
mar-
ital
36.12
35.98
■
66
79.34
37.19
Bg
68
68.15
40.26
19
68.52
44.00
30 !
68.27
35.21 !
l"ral
44
67.25
46.28
! 21.
88
62.43
40.88
26.40
63.71
30.84
69.50
40.94
Corrected for U. S. Population
total population
active population
age
group
mean
frequency
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
incidence %
MEAN
frequency
1 % OF TOTAL
OUTLET
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
Adol.-15
0.80
25.56
40.4
1.98
42.18
16-20
1.32
0.45
39.16
9.64
70.5
36.8
1.87
1.23
47.10
18.36
21-25
1.25
0.40
40.94
9.22
68.3
31.3
1.83
1.28
47.90
16.36
26-30
0.99
0.24
33.76
6.57
67.3
32.3
1.46
0.72
‘ 44.06
12.32
31-35
0.72
0.15
30.96
5.16
62.2
30.9
1.15
0.50
44.96
13.04
36-40
0.48
0.15
26.00
5.82
55.2
27.2
0.86
0.54
38.18
17.42
41-45
0.10 i
4.50
23.1
0.41
19.96
46-50
0.11
5.88
30.1
0.43
21.33
51-55
1
1
6.84
Table 64. Intercourse with companions in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
285
outlet from this source, while single males who never go beyond high
school ultimately get more than 10 per cent of their outlet from prosti-
tutes. The older single males who have never gone beyond grade school
may draw nearly a quarter (23.4%) of their outlet from females whom they
pay for intercourse (Table 96, Figures 77-82).
Among married males (as a whole group), prostitutes never provide
more than one or two per cent of the total sexual outlet. This is true of all
social levels and all age groups. Married males are much like single males
in finding, as they advance in age, an increasing portion of their hetero-
sexual, non-marital outlet with prostitutes. Between 16 and 20, prostitutes
provide 10.8 per cent of the extra-marital intercourse and in successive
five-year periods the percentages rise to 11.1, to 16.5, to 17.6 per cent (at
35 years of age) and to 22.3 per cent by 55 years of age. Among those
married males who go to prostitutes at all (the ‘‘active population”), an
increasing percentage of the total sexual outlet comes from this source;
the figure is 3.6 per cent of the total sexual outlet from prostitutes at 20
years of age, with a steady rise in the figures in older groups, until 18.4 per
cent of the total outlet of the 55-year old, prostitute-frequenting, married
male is derived from the commercial sources.
The single males at all ages have more frequent paid contacts than the
males who have wives. The reported frequencies of intercourse with prosti-
tutes for the single males between 16 and 25 (total population) are three or
four times as high as among married males of the same age. Between 46
and 50, they are 15 times as high as the frequencies reported by the married
males. Marriage is clearly a factor of considerable importance in reducing
the frequency of intercourse with prostitutes.
It should, however, be said that we are not entirely confident of the
accuracy of these data on extra-marital intercourse, especially among older
males from upper social levels. Where social position is dependent upon
the maintenance of an appearance of conformity with the sexual conven-
tions, males who have had extra-marital intercourse are less inclined to
contribute to the present study. Consequently, it is not unlikely that the
actual incidence and frequency figures exceed those given here.
Homosexual contacts, as might be expected, are most frequent among
unmarried males. The lowest incidence, about 27 per cent, occurs between
adolescence and 15 years of age (Table 66, Figures 83-88). The figures
steadily rise in older groups of single males. Between 36 and 40 years of
age, over a third (38.7% is the corrected figure for the total U. S. popula-
tion) of the unmarried males are having some homosexual experience,
and uncorrected figures indicate that about half of the unmarried 50-
year olds are so involved.
In marriage, the liighest recorded incidence is 10.6 per cent, between 21
and 25 years of age. After that, the incidence in the married groups drops
PERCENT OF POPULATION PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
286
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
INTERCOXmSE WITH PROSTITUTES
AOE GROUPS
ACE CROUPS
O' ^ ^ 1 f 1 ^ I -- I - 1
-IS -20 -25 -50 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
ACE CROUPS
Figures 77-79. Relation of age and marital status to intercourse with prostitutes
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections,
FReQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREaUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
287
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
MEDIAN FREQUENCIES
rirtr: raw d/>
TA
rivi. oc
^*1
•^****.
SiHCi
/
/
Le
..
^
‘5T-MAR
TAL
/
MAR
rs
\
'-v..
— — --SJ
—
Q i ^ ^ ^ ^ 1 i ^ »
-15 -20 -25 -30 -35 -40 -46 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Figures 80-82. Relation of age and marital status to intercourse with prostitutes
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
288
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Intercourse with Prostitutes, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
AGE
CASES
MEA^
j frequency
OF
total outlet
GROUP
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
Adol.-15
16-20
3012
2868
272
46
0.01
0.07
0.04
0 10
0.39
2.48
0.87
2.37
21-25
1535
751
119
0.10
0.03
0.12
3.92
0.72
3.25
26-30
550
737
182
0.16
0.03
0.19
6.14
0.82
6.46
31-35
195
569
158
0.22
0.02
0.22
9.67
0.84
11.34
36-40
97
390
128
0.26
0.02
0.24
13.03
0.85
13.81
41-45
56
272
96
0.18
0.02
0.28
10.65
0.78
18.96
46-50
39
175
63
0.29
0.01
0.19
15.77
0.80
15.25
51-55
56-60
109
67
42
0.02
0.02
0.12
1.13
1.75
9.78
I
Active Cases in Sample Population
AGE
incidence
%
mean frequency
% OF
total outlet
GROUP
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
Pre-
Extra-
Post-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
, mar-
mar-
1 mar-
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
Ital
ital
ital
Adol.-15
5.2
0.21
7.13
16-20
30.8
14.3
37.0
0.23
0.28
0.26
8.05
2.87
5.50
21-25
29.1
12.9
47.1
0.35
0.21
0.25
15.19
4.03
18.36
26-30
29.8
11.8
55.5
0.53
0.23
0.34
22.82
4.95
22.28
31-35
40.5
11.1 I
60.8
0.55
0.20
0.37
28.73
5.42
28.63
36-40
48.5
10.5
57.0 *
0.54
0.20
0.41
39.49
7.33 !
34.23
41-45
39.3 :
8,5
60.4
0.47
0.18
0.46
48.23
8.00
46.92
46-50
48.7
5.7
52.4
0.60
0.25
0.37
52.74 :
12.25
48.83
51-55
7.3
40.5
0.24
0.29
15.19
54.91
56-60
7,5
0.25
19.50
Corrected for U. S. Population
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE
GROUP
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
INCIDENCE %
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
Pre-
Extra-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar-
mar- ,
mar-
ital
Ital
ital
ital
ital
ital
ital i
1
ital
ital '
ital
Adol.-15
0.02
0.61
7.7
0.25
8.79 :
16-20
0.12
0.05
3.66
1.17
41.9
15.9
0.29
0.36
11.24 1
3.58
21-25
0.20
0.05
6.29
1.15
45.5
19.5
0.43
0.25
20.27
4.29
26-30
0.28
0.04
9.56
1.30
46.8
17.2
0.61
0.27
26.88
5.89
31-35
0.31
0.03
12.57
1.12
51.6
14.9
0.62
0.18
32.38
5.76
36-40
0.31
0.02
16.42
1.12
1 55.5
12.0
0.55
0.22
41.64
8.52
41-^5
0.02
1.11
11.4
0.19
9.84
46-50
0.02
1.01
7.9
0.24
13.58
51-55
0.02
1.65
9.1
1 0.25 !
18.43
Table 65. Intercourse with prostitutes in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS ANt) SEXUAL OUTLET
289
to about 2 per cent at 45 years of age, and still lower in still older married
groups. Social factors, particularly the physical and social organization of
the family, make it difficult for the married individual to have any sort of
sexual relation with anyone except his wife. However, the incidence of
the homosexual is probably higher than the available record on the married
group shows. Married males who have social position to maintain and who
fear that their wives may discover their extra-marital activities, are not
readily persuaded into contributing histories to a research study. While it
is possible to secure hundred percent samples from younger males, which
make the incidence figures for homosexual contacts fairly reliable there,
it is rarely possible to get as good a representation of older married males.
There are hundreds of younger individuals in the histories who report
homosexual contacts with these older, socially established, married males,
and the post-marital histories of males who are widowed or divorced
include the homosexual in 28.3 per cent of the teen-age group, and still in
10.8 per cent of the 31~35-year old histories. These data make it appear
probable that the true incidence of the homosexual in married groups is
much higher than we are able to record.
Homosexual relations, both among single and married males, are some-
times a substitute for less readily available heterosexual contacts. This is
true at all social levels and at all age groups, especially among isolated,
morally restrained, or timid males who are afraid to approach females
for sexual relations. On the other hand, it must be recognized that the
homosexual is in many instances, among both single and married males,
deliberately chosen as the preferred source of outlet; and it is simply
accepted as a different kind of sexual outlet by a fair number of persons,
whatever their marital status, who embrace both heterosexual and homo-
sexual experiences in the same age period. Consequently, the high inci-
dence of the homosexual among single males is not wholly chargeable to
the unavailability of heterosexual contacts. The increased incidence and
frequency among older single males are, as previously noted, partly de-
pendent upon the freer acceptance of a socially taboo activity as the indi-
vidual becomes more experienced and more certain of himself. The very
high incidence among the still older males may depend upon the fact that
those persons who are not exclusively or primarily homosexual are ordi-
narily married when younger, and those who have no interest in hetero-
sexual contacts are left in higher proportion in the older, unmarried
populations.
Animal contacts in the northeastern quarter of the United States are
largely confined to rural populations and are primarily activities of pre-
adolescent and younger adolescent boys. Social taboos quickly lead the
older individual to cover up his activity, to deny it in giving us a history
and, in actuality, to stop such contacts at a rather early age. There are
PERCENT Of POPULATION PERCENTS FREaUENCY PER WEEK
290
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
MEAN rREOUENCIES
TOTAL POPULAT/ON
-15 -20
-25 -50 -55 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
ACE GROUPS
HOMOSeXUAL OUTLET
PERCENT OF TOTAL OUTLET
rOV\L POPULATION
RAW DATA
U 5 CORRCCTfON
^ L..P057'MARITAL1 1 1
A — i I I \
-is -20 -25 -50 -55 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
)0
HOM0S€%UMr OUTLET
INCIDENCE I
FiO. 85
IL*” RAW DATA
mmm u S CORRECTION
\ POST- MARITAL
-15 -20
Figures 83-85.
-25 “30 -55 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Relation of age and marital status to homosexual outlet
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
FREQUENCY PER WEEK PERCENTS FREQUENCY PER WEEK
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
291
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
AGE GROUPS
HOMOSEXUAL OUTL
MEDIAN FREQUENC
ACTIVE POPULAT
*—11 RA.W DATA
ET
.lES
ON
FIG
88
5(NCL£^
y
y
y
y
y
/
/
/
/
/
y
y
,•••••’****
POST
- MARITA
L
MARRi
(EO
Q I ■ - — ■ ' I I I ^ I I 1 I
-15 -ZO -25 -30 -35 -40 -45 -50 -55 -60
AGE GROUPS
Figures 86-88. Relation of age and marital status to homosexual outlet
Solid lines represent the U. S. Corrections.
292
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Homosexual Outlets, Marital Status, and Age
Total Sample Population
AGE
group
CASES
mean frequency
% OF
total outlet
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
rtal
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
!
Mar- 1
ricd 1
Post-
mar-
ital
Adol.-lS
3012
0.14
4 89
j
16-20
2868
272
46
0.13
0.10 !
0.18
4.70
2,21
4 44
21-25
1535
751
119
0.16
0.03
0.28
5.98
0.83
7.82
26-30
550
737
182
0.37
0.02
0.16 1
14.31
0.69
5.38
31-35
195
569
158
0.51
0.02
0.10
21.94
0.67
5.13
36-40
97
390
128
0.44
0.02
0.05
21.74
0.67
2.93
41-45 !
56
272
96 i
0.44
0.02
0.07
25.51
0.86
4.40
46-50
39
175
63
0.61
32.64
1.41
51-55
109
42
0.81
56-60
67
Active Cases in Sample Population
AGE
incidence %
1 MEAN frequency
i
°/o OF
TOTAL OUTLET
GROUP
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
Single
Mar-
ried
Post-
mar-
ital
1
Single
Mar-
ried
1 Post-
mar-
ital
Adol.-15
16-20
24.8
21.6
8,5
28.3
0.56
0.62
1.20
0.63
12.13 :
13.25 :
9.20
9.54
21-25
14.5
7.5
26.9
1.09
0.43
1.06
25.45 ^
7.60
18.94
26-30
25.1
4.6 1
17.6
1.48
0.48
0.89
i 37.00
11.38
18.70
31-35
30.3
3.9
10.8
1.68
0.47
0.93
46.90
10.50
25.79
36-1-0
40.2
2.8 1
6.2
1.09
0.57
0.80
42.17
7.55
14.56
41-45
37.5
2.2
5.2
1.18
0.76
1.25
42.17
5.50
22.50
46-50
51-55
35.9
1.7
1.8
1.69
1.47
0.68
54.25
12.17
15.50
Corrected for U. S. Population
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE
GROUP
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% of TOTAL
OUTLET
INCIDENCE %
MEAN
FREQUENCY
% OF TOTAL
OUTLET
Sin- '
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin- !
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
Sin-
Mar-
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
gle
ried
Adol.-15
0.22
7.03
27.3 1
0.81
17.46
16-20
0.26
0.11
7.84
2.31
31.0
9.3
0.85
1.25
17.73
8.25
21-25
0.35
0.04
11.81
0.86 j
27.5 I
10.6
1.30
0.37
30.31
4.69
26-30
0.58
0.03
19.68
0.75
35.8
6.9
1.61
0.38
35.20
6.91
31-35
0.45
0.02
22.61
0.72
33.0
4.8
1.69
0.47
45.75
9.11
36-40
0.41
0.01
22.01
0.53
38.7
2.8
1.06
0.42
40.42
9.04
41-45
0.33
2.1
0.22
2.34
46-50
0.40
1.2
0.52
6.07
51-55
0.29
1.6
0.20
5.82
Table 66. Homosexual outlets in relation to marital status and age
Data for the U. S. population are based on the sample population which is corrected
for the distribution of educational levels shown in the U. S. Census for 1940. For sigmas
of means, median frequencies, etc., see the tables in Chapter 7.
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
293
differences in incidences and frequencies in different social levels, the ac-
tivity being highest among those rural boys who ultimately go to college.
In this latter group, about 28 per cent has intercourse with animals between
adolescence and 15 years of age and 17 per cent engages in the activity
sometime between 16 and 20 years of age (Table 59). In this farm popula-
tion, the incidence drops so rapidly for older single males that we are not
warranted in calculating averages on the basis of our present data. Simi-
larly, the active cases are too few to warrant calculations for married males
in the northeastern quarter of the United States. Limited data which we
have from more western and southwestern portions of the country indicate
that such animal intercourse continues as a part of the sexual activity of
not a few married adults.
Many of the pre-marital sources of sexual outlet are, to a degree, sub-
stitutes for less readily available heterosexual coitus. This is particularly
true of masturbation, the homosexual, and intercourse with animals of
other species. Sexual activities after marriage are concentrated on hetero-
sexual intercourse and chiefly, but by no means wholly, on marital inter-
course. Nevertheless, it would be a mistake to consider that differences in
the availability of sources are the sole factors which distinguish the pre-
marital from the marital record. It is to be recalled that the younger male,
who is in most cases the unmarried male, is the sexually most active indi-
vidual; and the intensity and frequency of his response to any situation
which comes along, particularly if that situation is novel and unexpected,
lead to his involvement in more kinds of sexual activity, whether he be
single or married. Similarly, among married males it is the younger ones
who have the highest frequencies of masturbation, extra-marital inter-
course, homosexual relations, and animal contacts. Marriage is undoubt-
edly an overwhelming force in focusing sexual activity; but the similar
concentration of the activities of the older single male upon his particular
forms of outlet, particularly intercourse with prostitutes and the homo-
sexual, indicates that marriage is not the only factor involved. It is also a
matter of conditioning which leads to a centering of attention on those
activities which have proved most satisfactory. It is a matter of a loss in
interest in variety, after an initial experimentation with its charms, of
concentrating upon the outlets that are most available in our society
as it is set up, and of avoiding those things which are most likely to cause
social disturbance.
Throughout the record, the effects of marital status are modified and
mitigated by the age of the individual (Chapter 7). In spite of all the social
and legal distinctions between the rights and privileges of married as
opposed to unmarried individuals, age is, at many points, a more signifi-
cant factor than marital status in determining the frequencies and, indi-
rectly, the sources of sexual outlet.
294
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
POST-MARITAL OUTLETS
The sexual lives of previously married males who are no longer living
with wives, have been a closer secret than the lives of single or married
adults We now have the post-marital histories of 433 white males. The
sample is too small to warrant analyses even by age; and it is to be noted
that there are not enough cases to allow corrections in accordance w'ith
the age, marital status, and education distribution shown in the U. S.
Census. Uncorrected figures based on our particular sample are, there-
fore, the only ones available on these post-marital histories. Nevertheless,
the data do seem to indicate general trends in regard to each of the sources
of outlet.
The post-marital histories are, in general, an interesting combination
of items which are characteristic of both single and married groups. The
total sexual outlet of the previously married males between the ages of 16
and 30 is about 85 to 95 per cent as high as among married males, which
means that it is between 40 and 50 per cent higher than among single
males (Table 60, Figures 50-52). At these ages, there is little efiect on the
frequency of the previously married individual’s sexual activity when he is
deprived of a legalized source of outlet. With advancing age, after 30,
however, the post-marital frequencies drop more rapidly than those in
marriage, to about three-quarters (69% to 76%) of the marital rates; and
this actually places them below the rates of even the single groups after
age 30. It is not immediately apparent what is responsible for these differ-
ences, but the data should be kept in mind.
Many males who dropped masturbation in marriage, return to it after
they have become widowed, separated, or divorced. Masturbation is found
in a smaller percentage (56% at 16-20 years, 33% at age 45) of the post-
marital cases than was true of the single histories; but the post-marital
incidence is somewhat higher than it was in marriage (Table 61, Figures
53-58). The frequency of the post-marital masturbation (total population)
is about a quarter to one-half of what it was in the single histories, but
a little higher than it was in the married histories. For those persons who
engage at all in masturbation, the percentage of the total outlet which
comes from this source (17% to 36%) in the post-marital period is about
twice as high as it was in marriage; but this is only a half to two-thirds
as much as it was in the pre-marital period. As in all other populations,
advancing age brings some decline in the incidences and frequencies;
but the portion of the outlet which is derived from masturbation increases
with the years, among these men who live without wives.
Nocturnal emissions (Table 62, Figures 59-64) occur in approximately
the same number of persons in pre-marital, marital, and post-marital
histories. The incidence is only slightly higher in single histories. The fre-
quencies are highest among single males, two-thirds as high among married
MARITAL STATUS AND SEXUAL OUTLET
295
males, and somewhere between the two among previously married persons
(where the frequencies range from about 0.26 per week at 16-30, to 0.19
at age 55). Nevertheless, while the incidences and actual frequencies go
down, the percentage of the total outlet which is derived from nocturnal
dreams (among previously married males who have any at all) rises more
or less steadily from 10 per cent or 11 per cent between 16 and 25, to 21
per cent at age 50. Only after that does the significance of the dreams in
the post-marital picture show any considerable drop.
Heterosexual intercourse is most important in the marital histories,
least important in the histories of single males, and midway or higher in
importance in the post-marital group (Table 63, Figures 65-70). The num-
ber of previously married males involved in intercourse ranges from about
96 per cent in the younger ages to 82 per cent by age 50. The drop in fre-
quency is a bit faster than among married males. With advancing age,
prostitutes provide an increasing part of the intercourse, companions a
decreasing part of the post-marital intercourse (Tables 64-65, Figures
71-82).
The actual frequencies and the proportion of the total outlet which is
derived from intercourse similarly lie between those of the married and
single groups. They lie closer to those of the married males when the post-
marital group is younger, and are nearly identical with those of married
males when the group is older. Males who have ever become accustomed
to the coital activities of marriage, keep coitus as their chief source of out-
let (80% to 85% of their outlet) even after their marriages are terminated
by the spouse’s death, or by separation or divorce. Nearly all males (about
95%), after they have once been initiated into regular coital experience,
whether as older single males or as previously married persons, repudiate
the doctrine that intercourse should be restricted to marital relations.
Nearly all ignore the legal limitation on intercourse outside of marriage.
Only age finally reduces the coital activities of those individuals, and thus
demonstrates that biological factors are, in the long run, more effective
than man-made regulations in determining the patterns of human behavior.
The picture probably differs for different social levels, but this breakdown
cannot be made with the present-sized sample.
Homosexual activity occurs among many of the males who have been
previously married (Table 66, Figures 83-88). It is in 28 per cent of the
younger tiistories, and in a smaller number of the older histories (5.2% at
45 years of age). This group is larger than the group that had homosexual
relations during marriage. While the incidence among the younger single
and post-marital histories is about the same, it is eight times higher among
the older males who have never been married. It is evident in a few of the
individual histories that marriages sometimes break up because of the
male partner’s developing preference for relations with other males; in
296
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
a few cases the male is induced by the breakdown of the heterosexual mar-
riage to accept his first homosexual experience; but in a larger number of
cases it is a matter of the individual returning to the sort of outlet that
he had before he was ever married. The mean frequencies of the homo-
sexual contacts (in the active population) among these previously married
males are a bit lower than, or of the same order as among single males;
and they are twice as high as among those married males who are having
homosexual relations. The percentage of the previously married male's
total outlet which is derived from the homosexual (19 per cent, rising to 22
per cent at older ages) is similarly double that found among married males,
but not nearly so high as is found among older single males (where the
figure rises to nearly half of the total sexual outlet). With advancing age,
the homosexual in the post-marital group definitely drops in incidence,
stays more or less constant in frequency, and slightly increases in its signifi-
cance as a part of the total sexual outlet.
In summary, it is to be noted that the average male w'ho is widowed or
divorced is not left without sexual outlet, as the mores of our society and
legal codes would have him. On the contrary, and in spite of customs and
laws, he continues to have almost as active a sexual life as when he was
married. He depends to a somewhat greater degree upon masturbation
and nocturnal dreams, and at younger ages he turns to homosexual
activity about as often as the single, previously unmarried male, but in
most cases this widowed or divorced individual depends upon hetero-
sexual intercourse for most (80%) of his not inconsiderable outlet. His is
not the picture of the single male, unless it be the oldest group of the single
males with which the comparison is made. Once married, a male largely
retains the pattern of the married male, even after marriage ceases to fur-
nish the physically convenient and legally recognized means for a frequent
and regular sexual outlet. These data are in striking contrast to those
available for the widowed or divorced female who, in a great many cases,
ceases to have any socio-sexual contacts and who, very often, may go for
long periods of years without sexual arousal or further sexual experience
of any sort.
Chapter 9
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
For many centuries, men have wanted to know whether early involve-
ment in sexual activity, or high frequencies of early activity, would reduce
one’s capacities in later life. It has been suggested that the duration of one’s
sexual life is definitely limited, and that ultimate high capacity and long-
lived performance depend upon the conservation of one’s sexual powers
in earlier years. The individual’s ability to function sexually has been con-
ceived as a finite quantity which is fairly limited and ultimately exhaustible.
One can use up those capacities by frequent activity in his youth, or pre-
serve his wealth for the fulfillment of the later obligations and privileges
of marriage.
Medical practitioners have sometimes ascribed infertility to wastage of
sperm. Erectal impotence is supposed to be the penalty for excessive sexual
exercise in youth {e.g., as in Vecki 1901, 1920; Liederman 1926, Efferz in
Bilderlexikon 1930 (3):118, Robinson 1933, pp. 61, 135, 142, et al.. Rice
1946). The discovery of the hormones has provided ammunition for these
ideas, and millions of youths have been told that in order “to be prepared”
one must conserve one’s virility by avoiding any wastage of vital fluids in
boyhood (Boy Scout Manual, all editions, 1911-1945; W. S. Hall 1909;
Dickerson 1930: 109ff; 1933: 15ff; U. S. Publ. Health Serv. 1937). Through
all of this literature, an amazing assemblage of errors of anatomy, physi-
ology, and endocrinology has been worked together for the good of the
conservationist’s theories. Why the ejaculation of prostatic and vesicular
secretions should involve a greater wastage of gonadal hormones than the
outpouring of secretions from any of the other glands — ^than the spitting
out, for instance, of salivary secretions — is something that biologists
would need to have explained. The authors of various popular manuals,
however, seem able to explain it “so youth may know,” and conserve their
glandular secretions.
The Greek writers Empedocles and Diodes, and others including Plato
after them, are said (Allbutt 1921, May 1931) to have believed that semen
came from the brain and spinal marrow and that excessive copulation
would, in consequence, injure the senses and the spine. Today, it is not
unusual to find exactly the same superstitions about the origin of semen,
and the consequently debilitating effects of ejaculation, among adolescent
boys and among certain of their elders who want to believe such things.
Many teen-age boys, on the contrary, have held to the equally unproved
297
298
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
opinions that the exercise of one's sexual functions, either in masturbation
or in intercourse, may develop genital size and increase one’s erectal
capacity, and that abstinence for any long period of time may impair one’s
capacities for subsequent performance.
There have been few scientific data available to answer these questions,
but that has not interfered with their being answered. It not infrequently
happens that the volume of discussion on a subject bears an inverse relation
to the amount of exact information which is available. The assurance with
which generalizations and conclusions are drawn, may reach its maximum
when the least effort has been made to investigate the data which are
basic to an understanding of the situation. If, as in the present instance, a
whole system of moral philosophy is involved, the conclusions become
foregone and by dint of much repetition assume the status of axioms which
are accepted by laymen and scientists alike. But this is a question of the
physical and physiologic outcome of physical and physiologic activities,
and as such it is a question which can be investigated only by scientific
procedures.
DATE OF FIRST
EJACULATION
AGE OF ONSET OF ADOLESCENCE
Before
10
10
11
1
12
; i
13 j 14 i 15
i 1
16
Same year
Second year
Third year
Fourth year j
Still later
%
100
0
0
0
0
%
96
2
5
0
%
92
5
2
1
0
%
87
8
3
1
1
O/
/o
83
11
3
1
2
0 '
/() 1
78 !
14 !
5 '
2
1
i 0/ i
i /o
78
16
4
2
1
/<)
81
11
5
3
0
Cases
14
94
309
1059
1510
1233
307
so
Table 67. Lapse between onset of adolescence and first ejaculation
Early in the course of the present study. Dr. Glenn V. Ramsey, while
securing the histories of younger boys, noted differences in their then cur-
rent sexual frequencies which seemed to be correlated with the degree of
maturity of each boy. Following that lead, we have subsequently examined
the histories of the whole population involved in the present study, and
find that there is, in actuality, a relationship between the age at onset of
adolescence, the age of first sexual performance, the frequencies of early
sexual activity, the frequencies of sexual activity throughout most of the
life span of the individual, and the sources on which he depends for his
sexual outlet. While chronologic age is of prime importance in determining
the mean frequencies of sexual activity for populations in different age
groups (Chapter 7), the biologic factors which account for variation in
the age of onset of adolescence seem to be of definite importance in effect-
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
299
ing variation within any single group. The data which substantiate these
generaUzations should provide one more instance of the difference between
a priori reasoning and conclusions based on statistically accumulated fact.
ONSET OF SEXUAL ACTIVITY
Any consideration of the age of onset of adolescence is made difficult
by the fact that there is no single criterion by which that age can be recog-
nized. In Chapter 5, in presenting the statistical data on adolescent develop-
ments, it was pointed out that there are a good many physical characters
involved, and that they do not all appear and develop at exactly the same
time. In the same chapter, it was pointed out that the designation of a
particular year, in any individual’s history, as the age of onset of adoles-
cence, must, therefore, depend upon judgments which may sometimes be
arbitrary and not exactly in accord with all of the details of the fact.
In the present study, the time of onset of adolescence has been fixed as
the date of the first ejaculation, unless there has been evidence that ejacula-
tion would have been possible at an earlier age if the individual had been
stimulated to the point of orgasm. When the year of first ejaculation
coincides with the year in which the first pubic hair appears, and with the
time of onset of rapid growth in height, and/or with certain other develop-
ments, there is no question that that year may be accepted as the first year
of adolescence. Eighty-five per cent of all male histories fall into this
category. On the other hand, if the first ejaculation follows these other
events by a year or more, and if it is clear that there was no test of the
individual’s sexual capacity prior to the first ejaculation, and if there seems
to be no question of the reliability of the memory in regard to the dates of
the other adolescent developments, then the age of onset of adolescence is
better established by events other than ejaculation. Where first ejaculation
occurs as a nocturnal emission, it usually (though not always) does not
come until a year or more after the appearance of the other adolescent
developments, and the onset of adolescence should be set a year or more
before the first ejaculation.
To define the time of onset of adolescence by any single criterion does
not satisfy the reahty as well as a judgment based on all of the pertinent
data. Even hormones and the 17-ketosteroids cannot be accepted as the
sole criteria for determining this event, or any other event. The history of
systematic botany and systematic zoology is replete with attempts to dis-
cover significant and diagnostic characters which might provide clear-cut
and absolute bases for systems of classification; but the modern taxon-
omist finds that the use of a single character inevitably provides a classifi-
catory system which is artificial and, at least at certain points, in direct
conflict with data from other sources. Every aspect of a situation is part of
the reality which one must take into account, if one is to xmderstand that
300
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
reality. In the present instance, the onset of adolescence must be recognized
whenever there is any development of any physiologic or physical character
that pertains to adolescence. The ages of onset of adolescence used for sta-
tistical analyses in the present chapter, and throughout this whole volume,
are based upon this use of the multiple characters which are concerned.
PERCENT DEPENDING ON EACH SOURCE
SOURCE
OF FIRST WHEN AGE AT ONSET OF ADOLESCENCE IS:
EJACULATION
8-11
12
13
14
15+ later
Masturbation
71.6
64.8
58.9
55.0
52.1
Nocturnal emissions
21.6
28.2
35.6
38.9
37.1
Petting
0.0
0.3
0.6
0.3
2.2
Intercourse
0.6
1.4
0.9
0.9
3.2
Homosexual
2.6
3.2
1.2
2.0
2.2
Animal
0.3
0.3
0.2
0.3
0.0
Spontaneous
3.3
1.8
2.6
2.6
3.2
Total
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
Cases
306
722
984
650
186
Table 68. Sources of first ejaculation in relation to age at onset of adolescence
■■ MASTURBATION
70 I I NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
I Ml '■! OTHER SOURCES
6-M 12 15 14 15+
AGE AT ONSET OF ADOLESCENCE
Figure 89. Sources of first ejaculation in relation to age at onset of adolescence
The use of multiple characters in a taxonomic classification inevitably
calls for a certain exercise of subjective judgment, and this is the most
serious objection to such a procedure; but the errors introduced by judg-
ment are not likely to be as misleading as the artificialities introduced by
the use of a single set of criteria in a classification.
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
301
In this study, the determination of the age of onset of adolescence has
been further complicated by the necessity for depending on the subject’s
memory for a report of what is supposed to have happened. Considering
the indefinite nature of the event itself, and this difficulty of obtaining
accurate records by way of memory (Chapter 4), it is surprising that it
has been possible to demonstrate correlations between this phenomenon
and any aspects of sexual behavior.
It will be recalled that the average age of onset of adolescence for the
white male population has been calculated as 13 years and 7 months
(Chapter 5). There are very few boys who reach adolescence prior to age
10, and few even before age 11. Consequently, in most of the tables
accompanying the present chapter, the males who were adolescent prior
to age 1 1 have, for purposes of calculation, been included in one group
with those who began adolescence at 1 1. In a few instances, the small num-
ber of available cases has made it necessary to put all those adolescent
before 12 into the 12-year group. Those who were adolescent after age 15
are grouped with those who became adolescent at 15.
In order to make significant comparisons, it has been necessary to con-
fine the analyses to groups that are homogeneous for sex, race, marital
status, and educational level, as well as for the age of onset of adolescence.
The tables in the present chapter cover all of those segments of the popu-
lation which are now represented in the sample by enough cases to warrant
statistical treatment. There has been no other basis for selecting the groups
which are included.
The first difference to be observed between the males who become adoles-
cent at an earUer age, and the males who become adolescent at an older
age, is the fact that the younger-adolescent boys begin regular sexual
activity of some sort, and begin having a regular outlet, more or less
coincidently with the onset of adolescence. Some of them, as a matter of
fact, had already experienced regular orgasm in pre-adolescence. On the
other hand, the older-adolescent males, despite the fact that they have
taken four or five years more in reaching adolescence, often delay a year
or two beyond that before they ejaculate for the first time. Sometimes it is
still longer before they acquire anything like regular rates of outlet. Early-
adolescent males ejaculate in the same year in which they become adoles-
cent in 92 to 100 per cent of the cases (Table 67). The older-adolescent
males ejaculate in their first year of adolescence in only about 80 per cent
of the cases. Nearly every one (99.5%) of the younger-maturing boys ac-
quires a regular sexual outlet between the time of adolescence and age 15.
There is an interesting correlation of the source of first ejaculation and
the age of onset of ejaculation (Table 68, Figure 89). For the boys who
become adolescent by 11 years of age, masturbation provides the first
302
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet and Age at Adolescence
Frequencies Among All Single Males
INDICES,
TOTAL POPULATION
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
age at
ADOL.
CASES
POPULATIONS ;
1
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq
By
Means
%
By
Me-
dians
0/
/o
Incid.
0 /
/o
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Activity between adoL~15
8-11
395
3.89 0.84
2.98
184
223
99.5
3.91 ± 0.85
3.00
12
1013
3 53 ± 0.11
2.64
167
197
98.6
3.58 O.Il
2.68
13
1481
2 90 =t: 0 07
2.19
137
163
97.6
2 97 0.08
2.27
14
1175
2.30 0.08
1.51
109
116
91.1
2.53 =b 0.08
‘ 1.80
15+
292
2.11 rt 0.14
1,34
100
i 100
85.6
2.46 0.15
|1.74
Activity between 16-20
8-11
361
3.68 =±= 0.18
2.89
149
159
99.7
3,69 =i= 0.18
2.90
12
920
3.37 ± 0.11
2.48
137
136
99.8
3.38 ± 0.11
2.49
13
1359
2.86 0.07
2.25
116
124
99.6
2.87 0.07
2.26
14
1128
2.54 0.07 i
1.89
103
104
99. 2|
2.56 =i= 0.07
1 1,92
15 +
398
2.46 =1= 0.12
1.82
100
100
99. 7i
2.49 0.12 1
1 1.85
Activity between 21-25
8-11
241
3.30
rt
0.22
2
,46
143
149
100.0
' 3.30
db
0.22 !
2,
.46
12
515
3.03
d=
0.14
2
.16
132
131
99.8
i 3.03
=fc
0.14 1
2
.16
13
769
2.49
0.08
1
.91
108
116
99.7
2.50
=b
0.08
1
.92
14
626
2.40
=fc
0.11
1
.65
104
100
98.9
2.43
zk:
0.11 :
1
.69
15+
257
2.30
=±s
0.14
1
.66
100
101
98.8
2.33
0.14 1
1
.69
Activity between 26-30
8-11
69
3.84
=±:
0.49
2,81
152
178
100.0
3.84
dr
0.49
2.81
12
122
3.07
=h
0.28
1.95
136
123
100.0,
3.07
dr
0.28
1.95
13
213
2.72
=1=
0.20
2.00
120
127
99.5
2.73
dr
0.20
2.01
14
200
2.26
db
0.16
1.58
100
100
99.0
2.28
dr
0.16
1.60
15+
98
2.49
dr
0.27
1.80
110
114
98.0
2.54
dr
0.27
1.84
Activity i
between
1 31-35
8-12
82 1
3.30
d=
0.43
2.08
160
144
100.0
3.30.
dr
0.43
2.08
13
86 I
2.78
d=
0.40
1.81
135
125
98.8
2.81
dr
0.40 1
1.82
14
97 1
2.06
dr
0.20
1.45
100
100
100.0
2.06
dr
0.20 i
1.45
Table 69. Total sexual outlet, in single males, as related to age at onset of
adolescence
Based on total white male population, including all education levels. The relative
sizes of the frequencies are shown in the boldface columns as indices, with the lowest fre-
quency in each 5-year period equalling 100 per cent.
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
303
ejaculation in nearly three-quarters of the cases (71.6 per cent); but for
the boys who become adolescent last, masturbation is the source of the
first outlet in only about half of the cases (52.1 per cent). Nocturnal dreams,
on the contrary, are the first source for only 21.6 per cent of the younger-
adolescent boys, but for 37.1 per cent of the late-adolescent males. The
boys who mature first more often act deliberately in going after their
first outlet; the boys who mature last more often depend upon the involun-
tary reactions which bring nocturnal emissions.
The sexual activities of these boys who start the earliest are far from in-
cidental. Between adolescence and 15 years, their rates are higher than the
rates of any other group of single males, of any age, in any segment of the
white population. Consequent on their quicker start, there are 16 per cent
more of the early-adolescent boys than there are of the late-adolescent
boys, who are active between adolescence and 15. Early-adolescent boys
have four or five years in which to make a start in that period, while the
later-adolescent boys have only one year in the period; but the higher inci-
dence of activity among the early-adolescent boys must depend, in part,
upon the generally higher level of performance in the group. This is con-
firmed by the fact that in all subsequent age periods there is still a slight
but consistent difference in incidence in favor of the boys who became
adolescent earliest.
FREQUENCIES OF TOTAL OUTLET
The younger-adolescent and the older-adolescent males differ most in
respect to the frequencies with which they engage in sexual activities.
Tables 69 and 71 give the data for single and married males respec-
tively.
Upon examining the record for the single males it will be seen that the
boys who became adolescent first (by 1 1 years of age) have, on an average,
about twice as much sexual outlet per week as the older-adolescent boys
have during their early teens. If the means for the total populations are
compared, the early-adolescent boys have 1.84 times as high frequencies
as the slower males. If the medians are compared, the younger-adolescent
boys have 2.23 times as much outlet. This is a material difference, and it is
a real difference, since the averages for this age period between adolescence
and 15 are calculated for the active years only, and not averaged with the
pre-adolescent years (page 1 10).
These younger-adolescent boys constitute the most active group of
single (unmarried) males in the whole population. In Chapter 7 it was con-
cluded that out of all single males, taken as a group, the sexually most
active are the 16-20-year old group; and that among the married males
the highest frequencies are also in the 16~20-year period. While boys
below 16, taken as a group, do not have frequencies as high as do the boys
11
304
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet and Age at Adolescence
Frequencies Among Single Males, by Educational Level
INDICES,
TOTAL POPULATION
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE AT
adol.
CASES
POPULATIONS
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
By
Means
%
By
Me-
dians
%
Incid.
0 /
/o
Mean ■
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Educ. level 0-8 Activity between adoI.-15
8-12
131
5.10
0.43
3,
.75
244 1
329
97.7
5.22
:±:
0.
.44
3
.88
13
180
3.34
=b
0.24
2,
.38
160
196
97.8
3.41
sir
0,
.25
2
.45
14
270
2.47
=fc
0.21
1.
.25
118
110
87.8 1
2.82
=i=
0.
.23 :
1
.61
15+
115
2.09
=fc
0.22
1.
.14
100
100
90.4
2.32
=b
0.
.24 ■
1
.34
Educ.
level 0-8
Activity between 1 6-20
8-12
114
5.54
d=
0.49
3,
.85
226
221
100.0
5.54
=fc
0.
49
3
85
13
165
3.40
d=
0.22
2,
.71
139
156
99.4
3.42
0.
22
1 2
73
14
266
2.88
=fc
0.21
1,
.96
118
113
97.7
2.95
=i=
0.
21
; 2
03
15+
154
2,45
=h
0.20
1,
.74
100
100
97.4
2.51
d=
0.
21
I
79
Educ.
level 0-8
Activity between 21
-25
8-12
46
5.34
=t=
0.84
3,
.25
197 :
175
97.8 1
5.46
=lr
0.
,85
3,
30
13-14
188
3.00
=fc
0.27
2
.01
111
108
97.3 i
3.08
0.
,28
2,
07
15+
84
2.71
=1=
0.30
1,
.86
100 j
100
98.8 1
2.74
0.
,30
1,
89
Educ. level 9-12 Activity between adoL-15
8-12
170
4.23
0.30
3.11
163
182
98.8
4.28
=b
0.30
3.16
13
197
3.63
=±=
0.28
2.35
140
137
98.5
3.69
=b
0.28
2.40
14
213
2.59
db
0.19
1.78
100
104
91.5
2.83
0.20
2.04
15+
42
2.60
=b
0.46
1.71
100
100
88.1
2.95
=fc
0.49
1.92
Educ.
level 9
-12
Activity between 1 6-20
8-12
162
4.23
=fc:
0.31
’ 3.25
144
139
99.4
4.25
=b
0.31
3.28
13
196
3.73
0.26
2.80
127
120
100.0
3.73
da
0.26
2.80
14
207
2.94
=i=
0.19
2.38
100
102
99.5
2.95
=b
0.19
2.40
15+
58
3.21
=fc
0.45
2.34
109
100
100.0
3.21
=b
0.45
2.34
Educ.
level 9
-12
Activity between 21
-25
8-12
63
3.87
db
0.53
2.92
291
292
100.0
3.87
db
0.53
1 2.92
13-14
144
2.91
=fc
0.25
2.08
219
208
98.6
2.95
=b
0.26
2.13
15+
25
1.33
=b
0.24
1.00
100
100
96.0
1.38
db
0.25
j 1.05
(Table continued on next page)
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
305
Frequencies Among Single Males, by Educational Level
INDICES,
TOTAL POPULATION
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE AT
CASES
POPULATIONS j
ADOL.
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
By
Means
%
By
Me-
dians
%
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Educ. level 13+ Activity between adol.-15
8-12
893 1
3.31
rk
0.10
2.57
176
185
98.9
3.35
=fc
0.10
2.60
13
896 ’
2.77
dtz
0.09
2.27
147
163 1
97.7
2.84
dz
0.09
2.35
14
600
2.18
=fc
0.09
1.56
116
112
92.0
2.37
=±=
0.10
1.84
15+
114
1.88
=t
0.21
1.39
100
100
78.1
2.41
=±=
0.24
2.00
Educ.
level 13+
Activity between 16
-20
8-12
893
3.00
=ir
0.09
2.34
133
134
99.8
3.01
=b
0.09
2.34
13
896
2.56
db
0.07
2.10
114
121
99.8
2.56
=b
0.07
2.10
14
600
2.26
=b
0.08
1.74
101
100
99.8
2.26
dz
0.08
1.75
15+
170
2.25
=b
0.14
1.86
100
107
99.4
2.26
dz
0.14
1.87
Educ.
level 13+
Activity between 21
-25
8-12
561
2.79
=h
0.11
2.06
129
132
100.0
2.79
dz
0.11
2.06
13
566
2.25
0.07
1.80
104
115
99.5 1
2.26
dz
0.07
1.81
14
393
2.17
0.10
1.56
100
100
100.0
2.17
dz
0.10
1.56
15+
136
2.23
=h
0.17
1.72
103
110
99.3
2.25
dz
0.17
1.74
Educ.
level 13 +
Activity between 26-30
8-12
176
3.03
=h
0.24
2.17
133
133
100.0
3.03
dz
0.24
2.17
13
179
2.52
d=
0.19
1.87
111
115
99.4
2.53
dz
0.19
1.88
14
152
2.27
d=
0.16
1.63
100
100
100.0
2.27
dz
0.16
1.63
15+
48
2.45
=b
0.41
1.65
108
101
100.0
2.45
dz
0.41
1.65
Table 70. Total outlet, as related to educational level and age at onset of
adolescence
in their late teens, we now find that the activities of the early-adolescent
individuals of this early teen-age group surpass those of the 16-20-year
olds.
The mean frequencies of total outlet for the late teen-age boys, taken as
a whole group, are 3.2 per week. The mean frequencies for the early-
adolescent boys during the period between 1 1 and 15 average 3.9 per week.
If this early-adolescent population is broken down into three educational
levels (Table 70), the mean frequencies become 5.1 per week among the
Total Outlet and Age at Adolescence
Frequencies Among All Married Males
INDICES,
TOTAL POPULATION
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
age at
CASES
POPULATIONS
adol.
Mean
Frequency
Me- '
dian
Freq.
1
By
Means
%
Bv
Me-
dians
0/
. 0
Incid.
/o
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Activity between 16-20
8-11
23
7.27 =1= 1.31
6.00
220
240
100.0
7.27 =t: 1.31 j
6.00
12 '
65 ’
5.21 =i= 0.64
3.42 i
158
137 1
100.0
5.21 =i= 0.64 i
3.42
13
85
4 87 ± 0.52
3.57
147
143
100.0
4.87 0.52
3.57
14
102
4.01 =»= 0.39
2.97
121
119
100.0
4.01 0.39
2.97
15-f
31
3.30 0.44
2.50
100
100
100.0
3.30 =fc: 0.44
2.50
Activity between 21-25
8-11 1
70
4.93 =b 0.63
3.41 1
151
133
100.0
4.93 =b 0.63 i
3.41
12 S
183
4.48 ± 0.30
3.37
137
131
100.0
4.48 =i= 0.30 i
3.37
13
245
3.94 =i= 0.26
3.05
121
119
100.0
3.94 =fc 0.26
3.05
14
278
3.55 0.21
2.67
109
104
100.0
3.55 0.21
2.67
15+
99
3.26 ± 0.25
2.57
100
100
100.0
3.26 ± 0.25 ’
2.57
Activity between 26-30
8-11
82
4.32
d=
0.52
3.09
147
134
100.0
4.32
=fc
0.52
3.09
12
168 ;
3.68
=b
0.27
2.86
125
124
100.0 i
3.68
dz
0.27
2.86
13
258
3,26
d=
0.19
2.59
111
112
100.0
3.26
dc
0.19
2.59
14
276
2.93
=b
0.15
2.37
100
103
99.3
2.95
=b
0.15
2.38
15+
97
3.42
rb
0.37
2.31
116
100
100.0 i
3,42
d=
0.37
2.31
Activity between 31-35
8-11
46
3.02 ± 0.34
2.38
112
114
100.0
3.02 =i= 0.34
2.38
12
114
3.21 =i= 0.30
2.53
120
121
100.0
3.21 =i= 0.30
2.53
13
193
2.97 0,20
2.29
111
109
100.0
2.97 =5= 0.20
2.29
14
223
2.68 0.17
2.09
100
100
100.0
2.68 =fc= 0.17
2.09
15+
85
3.14 ± 0.33
2.20
117
105
100.0 1
3.14 ± 0.33
2.20
1
Activity between 36-40
12
143
2.87 =t 0.25 !
2.17
121
115
99.3
2.89 =1= 0.25
2.18
13
152
2.76 ± 0.21
2.21
116
117
100.0
2.76 =1= 0.21
2.21
14
199
2.37 ± 0.16
1.89
100 1
100
100.0
2.37 =t= 0.16 i
1.89
15+
70
2.53 0.26
1.98
107
105
100.0
2.53 0.26
1.98
Activity between 41-45
13
84
2.45 =>= 0.26
1.95
121
119
100.0
2.45 0.26
1 1.95
14 j
123
2.03 0.20
1.64
100
100
100.0
2.03 =b 0.20
1.64
Activity between 46-50
13
52
2.22 =i= 0.33
1.63
112
121
100.0
2.22 0.33
1.63
14
92
1.99 0.25
1.35
100
100
98.9
2.02 ± 0.25
1.38
Table 71. Total sexual outlet in married males, as related to age at onset of
adolescence
Based on total married population, including all educational levels.
306
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
307
boys who never go beyond eighth grade in school, 4.2 per week for the
boys who go into high school but not beyond, and 3.3 per week for the
boys who will ultimately go to college. For each educational level, the
maximum frequencies for the early-adolescent boys are in the earUest age
period (except for the grade school group, where there is a slight increase
in rate in the next two age periods; but the samples on these grade school
boys are too small to be accepted as final). This location of the peak of
sexual activity in the earlier adolescent years is scientifically most interest-
ing, and it may have considerable social significance. The data emphasize
the importance of a breakdown by age of onset of adolescence, in any final
analysis of the problems of sexual behavior.
Not only do these earlier-developing boys have four years head start,
and not only do they have higher rates of activity in those initial years, but
they continue to have higher rates throughout the subsequent age periods.
In the fifteen years that lie between ages 16 and 30, the younger-developing
boys have about half again as much outlet as the later-developing
boys. There is still a discernible difference in the age group 31 to 35, which
is 20 to 25 years after the time of onset of adolescence 1 Considering the
multiplicity of other factors that may modify the frequencies of sexual
activity, it is surprising to find such a long-time correlation with the age of
onset of adolescence. In spite of their early start, and in spite of their much
higher expenditure of energy in sexual activity, these early-maturing males
remain more active than those who were delayed in their adolescence.
In the histories of married males, the age of onset of adolescence proves
to be as significant as in the histories of single males (Table 71). This is
astounding! It might have been expected that the frequency of sexual
activity for a married male would depend, to at least some degree, upon
the wife’s interest and wilUngness to engage in marital intercourse; and
certainly individual histories provide abundant examples of marital part-
ners having to adjust their rates in accordance with each other’s wishes.
Nevertheless, during the 16- to 20-year period, the outlets of the married
males who were adolescent at an early age are about twice as high as the
outlets of the males who were not adolescent until a later age — and this is
exactly the difference that would have been found if they had remained
unmarried. The effect persists throughout the lives of the married males,
as far as data are available. While the differential between the groups
decreases with advancing age, the rates of the younger-maturing group in
the 46- to 50-year old period are still about 20 per cent higher than the
rates of the slower-maturing group. Thirty-five years after the onset of
adolescence, there is still a discernible effect, which persists in spite of
marriage and in spite of all of the other events that affect sexual fre-
quencies !
308
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
SINOLE MALES
MARRIED MALES
A<SE AT
ADOL
8*11
12
15
14
15T
8-n
12
15
14
15+
8*11
12
(5
14
15+
MEAN MEDIAN MEAN
M£DIAH
AGE GROUP AOOL-55
AGE GROUP 26-30
8-n
12
15
14
15+
AGE GROUP 31-55 5 .IJ
8*12
13
14
12
15
14
15+
12
13
14
15+
AGE GROUP 26-30
Figure 90. Relation of age at onset of adolescence to frequency of total outlet
Based on the total population. Relative lengths of bars show mean and median
frequencies for each adolescent group. Single males m columns 1 and 2; married males
in columns 3 and 4. Effects shown as continuing up to 30 years after onset of adolescence.
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
309
FACTORS INVOLVED
While the data in Tables 69 to 71 indicate a definite correlation between
the ages of adolescence and the frequency of sexual activity, it must not
be concluded that a simple causal relationship exists. Such misinterpreta-
tions of correlations are too commonly made, both in popular thinking
and in technical scientific experiment. In many cases, more basic factors
are involved, and two sets of correlated phenomena may be simply end
products of the same forces. In the present instance, several basic factors
may be operating. It is possible that the fact that an early-adolescent indi-
vidual becomes sexually mature and erotically responsive at an earlier
age, is the significant item. This gives him more years to become conditioned
toward sexual experience before he reaches the teen-ages where social
restraints become more significant. To put the matter in another way, the
boy who becomes adolescent at 10 or 1 1 has not had as many years to build
up inhibitions against sexual activity as the boy who does not mature
until 15 or later; and it is quite possible (but not specifically demonstrable
from the available data) that the younger boy plunges into sexual activity
with less restraint and with more enthusiasm than the boy who starts at a
later date. Moreover, it is possible that the patterns which are established
by the earliest sexual activity, meaning patterns of higher frequency for
younger-maturing boys, and patterns of lower frequency for older-matur-
ing boys, are the patterns by which the individual’s subsequent hfe is
ordered. At least part of the long-time effects may depend upon psycho-
logic learning and conditioning.
But it is also probable that there are physiologic bases for the differ-
ences. It is diflScult to know just what these may be, for, unfortunately,
there are next to no studies of physiologic capacities in relation to the age
at which individuals become adolescent. There are studies of younger
children, adolescents, and older adults which show correlations between
their absolute ages and their physiologic performances (Robinson 1938,
and the references therein). There is at least one study (Richey 1931) which
shows that there is some correlation between age at the onset of adoles-
cence and blood pressures (systohe, diastolic, and pulse), the heights and
weights that are ultimately attained, and some anatomic developments.
Most significantly, these characters distinguish the various adolescent
groups as much as six years before the onset of adolescence, and for at
least six years after the beginning of adolescence. Further investigation of
a larger number of physiologic characters operating over a longer period
of years seems not to have been made. On the psychologic side, Terman
(1925), in his study of geniuses, found that the individuals with the highest
IQ’s were more often those who became adolescent first. It can, therefore,
be suggested that the frequency of sexual activity may, to some degree, be
dependent upon a general metabolic level which the individual maintains
through much of his life. One who functions at a higher level at one period
Masturbation Among Single Males, by Educational Level
AGE AT
TOTAL POPULATION
CASES
INDICES,
TOTAL
POPULATIONS
ACTIVE POPULATION
ADOL.
1
1
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
By
Means
0/ i
/o
By
Me-
dians
0/
/Q
lincid.
o/
y 0 j
Mean
Frequency
1
1 Me-
; dian
Freq.
Educ. level 0-8 Activity between adoI.~15
8-12
131
2.65
dh
0.25
1.70
53
0
230
284
96.9
2
73
dr
0
25
1.76
13
180
1.71
dr
0.16
1.01
53
8
149
168
91.7
1
87
db
0
17
1.19
14
270
1.25
d=
0.11
0.60
53
7
109
100
80.4
1
55
rb
0
12
0.94
15+
115
1.15
=fc
0.14
0.60
58
0
100
100
79.1
1
45
rb
0
16
0.90
Educ. level 0-8
Activity betw’een 16-20
8-12
114
1.47
rb
0.18
0.77
28
3
179
197
91.2
1
61
db
0
19
0.92
13
165
0.96
dr
0.09
0.50
31
1
117
128
86.1
1
11
dr
0
10
0.71
14
266
0.82
dr
0.07
0.39
31,
9
100
100
82.3
1
,00
rb
0.
08
'0.53
15-1-
154
0.89
zb
0.09
0.47
40,
0
109
120
89.0
!.
.00
dr
0.
,10
iO. 58
Educ. level 9-12
Activity between
adol.-
-15
8-12
170
2.32
rb
0.17
1.64
58,
2
157
132
97.1
2
39
db
0.
,17 :
1.72
13
197
2.10
rb
0,19
1.21
60,
6
142
115
91.9
2
28
db
0,
,20^
1.38
14
213
1.62
rfc
0.12
1.06
66,
0
109
101
85.0
1
91
rb
0.
,13
i.38
15+
42
1.48
dr
0.26
1.05
59,
3
100
100
83.3
1
77
dr
0,
.28
1.40
Educ. level 9-12 Activity between 16-20
8-12
162
1.37 ±0.11
0.80
34.9
120 •
154
92.0
1.49 ±0.12 1
0.91
13
196
1.45 0.17
0.74
41,1
127
142
90.3
1.60 =fc 0.19 ;
0,88
14
207
1.14=fc0.1o!
0.52
42.5
100
100
84.5
1.34=^0.11 i
|0.77
15-t-
58
1.34=1=0.19
0.87
44.4
117
ft i
167
94.8
1.42 0.19 i
10.92
1
Educ. level 13+ Activity between adol.-15
8-12
893
2.61 =t0.09
1.98
79.7
175
194
90.3
2.89 ±0.10
2.24
13
896
2.15 ±0.08
1.59
78.8
144
159
83.4 i
2.58 ±0.08
2.01
14
600
1.67 ±0.09
1.02
78.6
112
100
73.2
2.29 ±0.10
1.82
15-i-
114
1.49 ±0.19
1,02
80.9
100 i
100
60.5
2.46 ±0.25
1.93
Educ. level 13+ Activity between 16-20
8-12
893
2.02 ±0.08
1.43
67.2
142
164
91.8
2.20 ±0.08
1.63
13
896
1.66 ±0.06
1.08
65.4
117
124
88.6
1.88 ±0.06
1.38
14
600
1.45 ±0.07
0.92
64.2
102
106
84.5
1.72 ±0.07
1.31
15-f-
170
1
1.42 ±0.12
0.87
63.6
100
100
83.5
1.70 ±0.13
1.23
Educ. level 13+ Activity between 21-25
8-12
561
1.46 ±0.08
0.78
53.1
128
150
90.4
1.61 ±0.08
0.92
13
566
1.18 ±0.06
0.68
52.2
104
131
85.7
1,38 ±0.07
0.85
14
393
1.14 dr 0.07
0.52
53.2
100
100
82.7
1.37 ±0.08
0.80
15-1-
136
1.17 ±0.13
0.55 j
i 1
53.0
103
106
81. 6|
1.43 ±0.15
0.81
Educ. level 13+ Activity between 26-30
8-12
176
1.36±0.17
0.58
49.8
137
132
89.8
1.52±0.18
0.71
13
179
0.99 ± 0.09
0.49
42.7
100
111
80.4
1.23 ±0.10
0.78
14
152
1.11 ±0.13
0.44
52.9
112
100
82.2
1.35±0.15|
0.66
Table 72. Frequency of masturbation, as related to age at onset of adolescence
310
AGE OF AT^OLESC^l^CE A1S[0 SEXUAL OUTLET
Sfl
Masturbation and Age at Adolescence
Accumulative Incidence
Educational Level 13-h
»AGE
adolescent
BY 11
adolescent
AT 12
adolescent
AT 13
adolescent
AT 14
ADOLESCENT
AT 15 +
Case§
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
307
0.3
724
0.0
986
0.0
650
0.0
187
0.0
9
307
2.9
724
0.0
986
0.0
650
0.0
187
0.0
10
307
21.2
724
0.0
986
0.0
650
0.0
187
0.0
11
307
79.8
724
0.0
986
0.0
650
0.0
187
0.0
12
307
87.9
724
71.4
986
0.0
650
0.0
187
0.0
13
307
91.2
724
80.5
986
65.4
650
0.0
187
0.0
14
307
93.2
724
85.5
986
77.5
650
60.2
187
0.0
15
307
93.8
724
89.0
986
82.9
650
71.7
187
39.6
16
307
94.8
724
90.2
986
85.8
650
76.9
187
63.1
17
307
95.1
724
91.3
985
88.6
649
80.3
187
73.3
18
297
95.3
706
92.5
957
89.8
630
84.3
187
78.1
19
282
96.5
660
93.3
897
90.3
593
86.3
180
80.0
20
266
97.0
609
93.8
802
91.4
529
87.7
1 170
82.4
21
243
97.9
510
95.1
689 ,
91.9
472
88.8
154
85.1
22
205
97.6
407
95.8
568
92.6
401
89.8
126
88.1
23
183
97.3
339
96,5
474
93.2
332
90.1
105
88.6
24
152
97.4
274
96.7
391
93.9
288
88.5
84
88.1
25
131
99.2
238
97.1
345
94.5
246 i
89.8
77 1
87.0
26
112
99,1
206
97.1
310
95.8
224
92.0
67
88.1
27
90
98.9
174
97.1
278
96.8
205
91.7
54
90.7
28
86
98,8
155 :
97.4
248
97.2
188
91.0
29
74
98.6
! 144
97.2
223
96.9
174
90.2
30
64
98.4
125
97.6
206
97.1
162
92.6
31
60
98.3
no
97.3
188
96.8
156
92.3
32
55
98.2
100
97.0
: 171
97.1
149
93.3
33
53
98.1
91
96.7
154
97.4
135
! 92.6
34
85
97.6
142
97.9
124
93.5
35
77
97.4
131
97.7
119
94.1
36
70
97.1
119
97.5
114
94.7
37
64
96.9
105
98.1
103
94.2
38
60
96.7
100
98.0
100
95.0
39
57
96.5
89
97.8
93
94.6
40
50
98.0
83
97.6
87
95.4
Table 73. Experience in masturbation, as affected by age at onset of adolescence
Accumulative incidence data based on males of the college level.
312
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
MASTURBATION PRE-MARITAL HOMOSEXUAL
INTERCOURSE OUTLET
EDUCATIONAL LEVEL 13 +
Figure 91. Relation of age at onset of adolescence to frequencies of masturba-
tion, pre-marital intercourse with companions, and homosexual outlet
Based on single males. Relative tenths of bars show mean frequencies for each
group. Efifects shown as continuing up to 10 years for a grade school group
(0-8); and up to 20 years for a college group (IS-j-)*
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
313
in his life is likely to function at a higher level through most of his life,
barring illness and physical accidents that produce permanent incapacities.
Casual observation would suggest that such an individual is not worn
down by his quicker and more frequent responses to everyday situations,
and there would seem to be no more reason for his being exhausted by his
frequent sexual responses. Moreover, it is possible that the factors account-
ing for these other evidences of high metabolic level also account for early
adolescence. Whether this is the correct interpretation is a matter which
will have to be investigated through extensive research on the physiologic
quahties of sexually high and low rating individuals.
SOURCES OF OUTLET
An examination of the sources of outlet of the younger adolescent males
indicates that their higher rates of total outlet are not consequent upon an
increased frequency in each and every kind of sexual activity. On the con-
trary, nearly all of the increased frequency comes from masturbation, pre-
marital intercourse, and the homosexual (Tables 72-78).
Masturbation. While 90 per cent of the younger-maturing boys are
involved in masturbation during their early teens, only 60 per cent of the
late-maturing boys are involved in that same period. In successive five-
year periods the number of earlier-adolescent males who are masturbating
is 10 per cent to 15 per cent higher than the number of later-adolescent
males who are so involved. Ultimately, nearly 99 per cent of the younger-
adolescent boys have some experience in masturbation, while only 93 per
cent of the later-adolescent boys are ever involved (Table 73, Figure 92).
The younger-maturing boys have about twice as much masturbation as
the late-maturing males during the early adolescent years, and 50 to 60
per cent more masturbation between 16 and 25 years of age, if they remain
single. The frequencies calculated for the active population (z.e., for that
portion of the population that is involved in this activity at all) are
definitely higher in every age period for the males who matured first
(Table 72). At this college level, these higher frequencies in masturbation
are the chief source of the higher total outlets of the younger-maturing
males.
Pre-marital Intercourse. In their earlier adolescent years, the younger-
maturing boys are also much involved in pre-marital intercourse. Their
frequencies are much higher than the frequencies for the late-adolescent
group in this period (Table 74). In subsequent age periods, the frequencies
among the boys who became adolescent first remain 50 per cent to 75 per
cent higher.
During this early adolescent period, the younger-maturing boys of the
college level are involved in pre-marital intercourse in 1 1.8 per cent of the
cases, while the older-maturing boys are involved in 7.0 per cent of the
Pre-Marital Intercourse and Age at Adolescence
INDICES,
TOTAL POPULATION
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE AT
CASES
POPULATIONS
AUOL.
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
By
Means
/o
By
Me-
dians
%
Incid.
%
Mean 1
Frequency I
1 ^ ;Freq.
I 1
Educ. level 0-8 Activity between adol.-15
8-12
131
1.86
ab
0.33
0.44
37.3
286
220
66.4i 2
80
=fc
0
46
1
39
13
180
1.13
=t:
0.15
0.20
35.3
174
100
60.0 1 1
88
=b
0
2i
I
03
14
270
0.80
=fc:
0.12
0.00
34.7
123
—
41.5 1
94
0
25
1
.25
15 +
115
0.65
0.15
0.00
33.0
100
—
31.3 i 2
i
08
da
0
37
1
.25
Educ. level 0-8
Activity between
16-20
8-12
114
3.06
dfc
0.44
1,58
58.8
306
396
86.0: 3,
.56
dr
0^
,49 i
T
13
165
1.64
0.16
0.79
53.3
162
198
89.1 j 1,
.84
d=
0.
.17 !
1
.09
14
266
1.46
=h
0.16
0.47
56.9
145
118
82.3; 1.
.78
=b
0.
.18 i
0
.83
15+
154
1.01
0.14
0.40
45.2
100
100
74.7 1 1,
.35
db
0.
,17 ^
0
.73
Educ. level 9-12 Activity between adoL-15
8-12
170
0.91 =b0,20
0.00
22.7
162
48.2-
1.88 0.391
'0.48
13
197
0.96 =5=0.15
0.01
27.7
171
—
50,3
1.91 0.27 .
0.89
14
213
0.56 =1=0.13
0.00
22,9
100
—
35.2
1.60 ±0.35'
'0.80
Educ. level 9-12 Activity between 16-20
8-12 :
162 ;
1.58 ±0.24
0.29
40.3
155
161
71. 0|
12.23 =fc0.32
0.78
13
196
1.54=5=0.18
0.57
43.8
151
317
76.5!
! 2.01 =fc 0.22
[1.16
14
207 I
1.02=5=0.15
0.38
37.9
100
211
72.5 1
i 1.40 =fc 0.19
1
0.77
Educ. level 13+ Activity between adoI.-15
8-12 i
893
0.11 0.02 :
0,00 i
3.2
1100
—
ll.S|0.90±0.16
0.29
13
896
0.07 =fc 0,02
0.00
2.5
700
—
1 7.8|0.87 :i=0.18
0.34
14
600
0.06 =1=0.02 !
0,00
2.6
600
—
7.7 0.71 ±0.17
0.29
154-
114
0.01 =±=0.00
0.00
0.4
100
—
7.0 0.11 ±0.04
0.08
Educ. level 13+ Activity between 16-20
8-12
1 893
0.30
=b
0.03
0.00
9.9
177 1
—
[43.8
0.68
afc
0.07
0.24
13
896
0.22
d=
0.03 i
0.00
8.7
129
—
35.6
0.62
d=
0.06
0.20
14
600
0.21
=fc
0.03 1
0.00
9.3
124
—
35.5
0.59
da
0.08
0.17
15+
1 170
0.17
=±=
0.05
0.00
7.7
100 !
—
32.9
0.52
da
0.13
0.21
Educ. level 13 +
Activity between
. 21-25
8-12
561
0.54
dr
0.06 1
0.03
19.6
154
300
55.3
0.97
at
0.10
0.36
13
566
0,40
=i=
0.05
0,01
17.4
114
100
51.4
0.77
ab
0.09
0.30
14
393
0.35
da
0.05
0.01
16,4
100
100
50.9
0.69
at
0.09
0.28
15+
136
"0.38
db
0.09
0.01
17.1
109
100
50.7
0.74
da
0.16
0.34
Educ. level 13+
Activity between 26-30
8-12 i
176
0.78
d=
0.11 i
0.13 1
28.6
144
186
64.2
1.22
da
0.15
0.48
13
179
0.80
da
0.15
0.07
34.4
148
100
59.2
1.35
da
0.24
0.51
14
152
0.54
da
0.08
0.07
25.8
100
100
58.6
0.92
db
0.13
0.44
Table 74. Frequency of pre-marital intercourse, as related to age at onset of
adolescence
Data cover the pre-marital intercourse which is had with companions.
314
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
315
cases. The active incidence figures beyond 15 years of age are more or less
the same for each of the adolescent groups; but the accumulative incidence
figures (showing the number of males from each adolescent group who
are ever involved, in the course of their lives) show some striking differ-
ences between the adolescent groups (Table 75, Figure 93). Ultimately 95
per cent of the early-adolescent boys of this college group obtain experi-
ence in heterosexual intercourse, either through pre-marital or marital
relations, by age 30; but hardly more than 80 per cent of the late-adoles-
cent males have arrived at such experience in intercourse by that age. For
the males who become adolescent at intermediate ages, i.e., at 12, 13, or
14 years of age, the accumulative incidence curves are intermediate (Table
75, Figure 93). Ultimately the curves for the groups which are adolescent
at 12 to 14 reach the same level (that is, 95%) which is obtained by the
earlier-adolescent boys, but the group which does not become adolescent
until 15 or later shows no evidence that it will get much beyond the 80
per cent mark. It is amazing that there should be nearly 20 per cent of
these late-adolescent males who have not had some sort of heterosexual
coitus by age 35. Most of the late-adolescent males who still lack coital
experience in their thirties, have depended upon masturbation and noc-
turnal dreams rather than upon any other socio-sexual source for their
outlet. An unusual proportion of these late-adolescent males is introvert
and socially timid, and a considerable number is not yet married at 35
years of age (Table 76, Figure 95).
Homosexual Outlet. During the early adolescent years, twice as many
of the early-maturing boys of this college level are involved in homosexual
activities (Table 78). During subsequent age periods, the differences in
incidence are not so great. Ultimately about 45 per cent of the early-
adolescent boys of this college level have some homosexual experience,
while less than 25 per cent of the late-adolescent males are ever involved.
On the other hand, the frequencies with which homosexual contacts occur
(Table 77) remain at about twice the height for these single males who
first became adolescent, at least through the period between adolescence
and 25. As a factor in the development of the homosexual, age of onset of
adolescence (which probably means the metabohe drive of the individual)
may prove to be more significant than the much discussed Oedipus relation
of Freudian philosophy.
Other Outlets. Apart from masturbation, heterosexual coitus, and the
homosexual, the other possible sources of sexual outlet are utilized to
about an equal degree by the unmarried males from different adolescent
groups. A single instance of such conformance is shown in Table 79,
which covers the data for nocturnal emissions. Similarly, there are no
fundamental differences between the incidences and frequencies in regard
to heterosexual petting, and in regard to that part of the heterosexual
316
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
First Intercourse and Age at Adolescence
Accumulative Incidence Data
Educational Level 13-f
AGE
adolescent
BY 11
adolescent
AT 12
adolescent
AT 13
j adolescent
j AT 14
1
ADOL FSCENT
AT 15-1-
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
' ^*0 ^^ilh
j Exper.
8
300
0.0
707
0.0
979
0.0
647
0.0
183
1 0.0
9
300
0.3
707
0.0
979
0.0
647
0.0
183
' 0,0
10
300
0.3
707
0.0
979
0.0
647
0.0
183
0.0
11
300
1.7
707
0.0
979
0.0
647
i 0.0
183
; 0.0
12
300
3.3
707
2.4
979
0.0
647
i 0.0
183
0.0
13
300
8.7
707
4.2
979
2.9
647
0.0
183
0.0
14
300
13.0
707
7.5
979
5.0
647
5.0
183
0 0
15
300
15,0
707
11.6
979
8.6
647
7.6
183
4.4
16
300
23.0
707
19.0
979
13.6
646
12,8
183
9.3
17
300
29.0
707
27.4
978
22.2
645
19.5
183
14.8
18
290
37.2
690
35.8
948
28.7
626
28.8
183
21.9
19
275
44.7
646
43.2
886
36.0
590
35.8
176
30.7
20
259
53.7
595
50.1
791
43.9
526
42.4
167
37.1
21
236
57.2
499
54.5
676
50.0
470
47.9
151
43.7
22
198
65.1
397
61.5
555
58.4
398
53.8
123
52.0
23
176
68.2
329
64.4
462
66.7
327
57.2
102
52.9
24
146
74.7
264
72.7
379
71.2
281
62.6
81
58.0
25
126
79.4
229
79.0
334
76.0
239 1
71.5
73
64.4
26
107
87.9
198
83.8
299
79.6
216
78.2
63
66.7
27
86
90.7
169
85.2
270
81.9
198
81.8
50
70.0
28
82
91.5
150
85.3
240
85.4
182
86.3
44
70.5
29
70
95.7
139
85.6
216
86.1
169
88.8
39
79.5
30
60
95.0
121
87.6
199
89.4
158
91.1
34
82.4
31
56
94.6
107
91.6
181
90.6
153 ;
92.2
32
51
94.1
97
92.8
166
91.0
146 ‘
92.5
33
89
92.1
148
91.2
131 1
92.4
34
83
92.8
137
92.7
120
94.2
35
76
92.1
126
96.0 j
115
93.9
36
70
94.3
114
95.6
110
94.5
37
64
93.8
101
95.0
99
93.9
38
60
93.3
96
92.7
96
95.8
39
57
93.0
85
96.5
90
95.6
40
79
96.2
84
1 95.2
Table 75. Age of first intercourse, as affected by age at onset of adolescence
Accumulative incidence data based on males of college level.
PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION PERCENT OF TOTAL POPULATION
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
317
AGE
Figures 92-94. Relation of age at onset of adolescence to accumulative incidence
of masturbation, total intercourse, and homosexual outlet
Based on lifetime histories of males of the college level. Each adolescent group main-
tains Its relative position for 20 or more years.
318
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUilAK MALE
Marriage and Age at Adolescence
Accumulative
Educationai
Incidence Data
Level 13-f-
age
adolescent
ADOLESCENT
adolescent
adolescent
adolescent
BY
11
AT
12
at
13
at
14
at
15 +
Cases
% with
Cases
L% with
Cases
% with
<
i
Cases !
% with
i
Cases
% with
Exper.
1 Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
; Exper.
I
8
307
0.0
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
9
307
0.0
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
10
307
0.0
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
i 0.0
187
0.0
11
307
0.0
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
12
307
0.0
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
1 0.0
187
0.0
13
307
0.0
724
0.0 i
986 j
0.0
651
i 0.0
187
0 0
14
307
0.0
724
0.0
986 i
0.0
651
i 0.0
187
0.0
15
307
0.0
724
0.0
986 i
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
16
307
0,3
724
0.1
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
17
307
0.3
724
0.1
985
0.2
650
0.0
187 1
0.0
18
297
0.7
706
0.4
957
0.4
631
0.0
187 1
0.0
19
282
2.5
660
1.4
897
1.2
594
0.7
180 i
0.0
20
266
3.4
609
3.1
802
2.9
530
2.8
170 i
0.0
21
243
5.3
510
6.3
689
4.9
473
5.3
154 !
0.6
22
205
9.8
407
12.0
568
11.1
402
10.0
126 1
6,3
23
183
16.9
339
19.8
474
16.5
332
1 14.8
I 105 :
i 8.6
24
152
28.3
274
32.5
391
23.3
288
1 20.1
1 84 :
i 15.5
25
131
37.4
238
1 45.0
i 345
29.9
246
! 29.7
1 77 1
1 23.4
26
112
48.2
206
52.4
310
42.3
224
! 40.6
i 67 :
: 26.9
27
90
55.6
174
1 60.3
278
51.8
205
49.3
! 54
37.0
28
86
59.3
155
63.2
248
60.1
188
55.3
29
74
67.6
144
67.4
223
64.6
174
59.2
30
64
68.8
125
73.6
206
71.4
162
67.3
31
60
73.3
110
83.6
188
73.9
156
71.2
32
55
76.4
100
84.0
171
77.2
149
73.2
33
53
77.4
91
85.7
154
78.6
135
75.6
34
85
87.1
; 142
81.0
124
79.8
35
77
87.0
131
83.2
119
80.7
36
70
88.6
119
84.9
114
82.5
37
64
87.5
105
83.8
103
80.6
38
1 60
86.7
' 100
83.0
100
83.0
39
' 57
86.0
89
83.1
93
83.9
40
50
88.0
83
! 85.5
87
86.2
Table 76. Age at marriage, as aflfected by age at onset of adolescence
Accumulative incidence data based on males of college level.
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
319
intercourse which is had with prostitutes. There is some suggestion in the
data that the farm boys who became adolescent first have more animal
intercourse, but the number of active cases is too small to allow dependable
calculations.
For the married males, the rates of total outlet among the early-adoles-
cent individuals are definitely higher. There is some indication that most
of this comes from marital intercourse, but the necessity for a six-way
breakdown of the population before correlations can be run puts such a
strain on the relatively smaller samples now available for married males,
that further analyses cannot be made at this time.
Figure 95. Relation of age at onset of adolescence to age at marriage
Based on males of the college level. A social phenomenon is correlated with the
factors which control onset of adolescence.
AGING VERSUS EARLY ACTIVITY
It would be of considerable interest to know whether an early onset of
sexual activity and a lifetime of higher frequencies among the early-
adolescent males show any correlation with the age at which individuals
become sexually unresponsive or impotent, and at which they cease sexual
activity altogetW.
Some information on these points may be had from Table 71 where the
record for married males is shown up to the age of 50. At that time, 100
per cent of the early-adolescent males are still sexually active, and their
frequencies are still 20 per cent higher than the frequencies of the later-
maturing males. Nearly forty years of maximum activity have not yet
worn them out physically, physiologically, or psychologically. On the other
hand, some of the males (not many) who were late adolescent and who
Homosexual Outlets and Age at Adolescence
Frequencies Among Single Males, by Educational Level
INDICES,
age at
adol.
CASES
total population
total
popULxnoNS
active pope la HON
Mean
Frequency
: Me-
dian
Freq.
% of
Total
Outlet
By
Means
(>
Incid. Mean
„ dian
o Frequency
Educ. level 0-8 Activity between adoL-15
8-12
131
0.44
=b0.08
0.00
8.8
367
46
.6
0,
.94
:i=
0.
,15
0.40
13
180
0.27
±0.06
0.00
8.6
225
25
.0
1,
.09
0.
,20
0.50
14
270
0.22
=±=0.06
0.00
9.7
183
18
.9
1 ,
.19
cb
0.
.28
0.38
15+
115
0.12
=i=0.04
0.00
i
6.0
100
13
.9,
0
85
=b
0,
.24
0.56
Educ. level
. 0-8
Activity between
16-
■20
8-12 1
114
0.52
=b0.12
0.00
10.0
400
45,
.6
1
14
=L
0.
22
0.40
13
165
0.31
=i=0.08
; 0.00
10.1
238
28,
.5
1
,09
=b
0.
25
0.39
14
266
0.15
=i=0.04
0.00
6.0
115 I
oo
.6,
0
,68
zb
0.
13 ,
0.30
15+
154
0.13
=^0.03
0.00
5.9
100
22,
n ,
0
,58
=b
0.
10:
,0.43
Educ. level 9-12
Activity between adol -
i:
)
8-12
170
0.54
= l 0.11
0.00
13.4
599
47
1
1
'TT
=b
0.
21
I0.45
13
197
0.26
=i=0.06
0.00
7.5
288 1
31,
0
0
85
zfc
0.
19
O.IO
14
213
0.17
=±=0.03
0.00
6.9
1.30 i
26
8
0
64
zb
0
U)
;0.27
15+
42
0.09
=fc0.04
0.00
3.8
100
21
4j
0,
,44
0
12
;o.5o
Educ. Icv'el
i 9-12
Activity between
, 16-
20
8-12
162
0.72
±0.14
0.03
18.3
480
54,
9
1.
,31'
0.
24
0.50
13
196
0.31
±0.06
0.00
8.7
207
38,
8 ;
0.
,79
=L
0.
13
,0.17
14
207
0.31
±0.06
0.00
11.5
207
37,
T j
0.
83
=b
0.
13 ;
10.34
15+
58
0.15
±0.05
0.00
4.8
100
.34,
,"i
0.
,43
=b
0.
‘U
I0.I4
i
Educ. level 13-E Activity betw'cen adol.- 15
8-12
893
0.11 ±0.02
0.00
3.2
220
27.9
0.38 ± 0.05
0.08
13
896
0.09 ±0.01
0.00
3.3
180
20 9 !
0.43 ±0.05
10.09
14
600
0.07 ±0.02
0.00
3.3
140
14. 0:
0.50 ±0.12
!0.09
15+
114
0.05 ±0.02
0.00
2.8
100
14.0
0.36 =0.14
jo. 23
Educ. level 13+ Activity between 16-20
8-12
893
0.08
rb
0.01
0.00
2.5
200
16.6
0.46
=b
0.07
;o.o8
13
896
0.06
=b
O.Ol
0.00
2.4
150
15.5
0.39
0 06
,0.08
14
600
0.07
=b
0.02
0.00
3,0
175
15.3
0.44
b:
0.12
|0.09
15+
170
0.04
=b
0.02
0.00
1.7
100
15.9
0.24
=b
0.09
0.08
Educ. level 13 +
Activity between
21-25
8-12
561
0.11
=b
0.02
0.00
4.0
183
9.3
1.18
=b
0.19
0.48
13
566
0.08
d=
0.02
0.00
3.4
133
9,0
0.84
=b
0.20
0.26
14
393
0.09
=b
0.03
0.00
4.4
150
9.7
0.97
=b
0.31
0.23
15+
136
0.06
=b
0.03
0.00
2.5
100
8.8
0.63
=b
0.28
0.30
Educ. level 13+
Activity between
26-30
8-12
1 176
0.27
=b
0.06
0.00
9.8
159
17.6
1.52
=b
0.27
1.17
13
179
0.21
=b
0.06
0.00
9.0
123
17.3
1.21
=b
0.26
0.63
14
152
0.17
=b
0,05
0,00
7.9
100
16.4
1.01
=b
0.26
0.37
Table 77. Frequency of homosexual outlet as related to age at onset of
adolescence
320
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
321
Homosexual Outlets and Age at Adolescence
Accumulative Incidence Data
Educational Level 13+
AGE
adolescent
BY 11
adolescent
AT 12
adolescent
AT 13
adolescent
AT 14
adolescent
AT 15 +
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
307
0.3
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
9
307
0.7
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
10
307
4.2
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
11
307
16.3
724
0.0
986
0.0
651
0.0
187
0.0
12
307
20.5
724
15.2
986
0.0 i
651
0.0
187
0.0
13
307
23.8
724
19.9
986
11.4
651
0.0
187
0.0
14
307
29.3
724
23.8
986
18.1
651
11.2
187
0.0
15
307
30.6
724
27.1
986
20.5
651
14.3
187
9.6
16
307
31.9
724
28.6
986
22.2
651
16.9
187
12.3
17
307
32.2
724
29.6
985
23.4
650
18.2
187
13.9
18
297
34.0
706
30.6
957
24.7
631
20.1
187
15.5
19
282
35.5
660
32.7
897
25.4
594
20.7
180
16.7
20
266
37.6
609
33,5
802
25.6
530
21.9
170
18.2
21
243
37,4
510
35.1
689
27.0
473
22.2
154
19.5
22
205
39.0
407
36.4
568
28.5
402
22.9
126
21.4
23
183
42.6
339
37.5
474
29.5
332
24.4
105
22.9
24
152
43.4
274
38.7
391
29.9
288
25.3
84
22.6
25
131
45.8
236
39.4
345
29.9
246
27.2
77
22.1
26
112
41.1
206
40.8
310
30.0
224
28.6
67
20.9
27
90
42.2
174
40.8
278
31.7
205
29.3
54
22.2
28
86
41.9
155
38,7
248
33.5
188
29.3
29
74
44.6
144
38.9
223
32.7
174
28.7
30
64
43.8
125
38,4
206
33.5
162
I 29.0
31
60
46.7
no
37.3
188
34.0
156
29.5
32
55
43.6 1
100
37.0
171
32.2
149
28.9
33
53
43.4
91
38.5
154
33.8
135
29.6
34
85
40 0
142
33.8
124
30.6
35
77
39.0
131
32,1
119
30.3
36
70
40.0
119
31.9
114
28.9
37
64
42.2
105
30.5
103
28.2
38
60
43.3
100
30.0
100
28.0
39
57
42.1
89
31.5
93
28.0
40
50
42.0
83
28.9
87
27.6
Table 78. Homosexual outlet as alBfected by age at onset of adolescence
Accumulative incidence data based on males of the college level.
322
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions and Age at Adolescence
Frequencies Among Single Males, by Educaeional Level
INDICES,
total population
TOTAL
ACTIVE POPULATION
AGE AT
cases
POPUL \TIONS
ADOL.
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
”/o of
Total
Outlet
dians
/o j o
J o
i u,
Incid. Mean ^
, Frequency ^
' . 1 ^ ticq.
Educ. level 0-8 Activity between adoI.-15
8-12
131
0.04 ±0.01
0.00
0.9
100
—
30.5,0.14 ±0.04 0.07
13
180
0.07 ±0.02
0.00
2.3
175
—
37.2.0.20 ± 0.04 0,08
14
270
0.05 ±0.01
0.00
2.0
125
—
20.4:0.23 ± 0.06 0.07
15-i-
115
0.06 ±0.02
0.00
3.0
150
—
14.8 0.40 ±0.13 0.26
Educ. level 0-8
Activity between
16-20
8-12
114
0.15 ±0.03
0.03
2,9
115
300
57.0 0.26 ±0.05 0.10
13
165
0.17 ±0.03
0.05
5.5
131
500
66.7 0.25 ±0.04 0.10
14
266
0.13 ±0.02
0.01
5.1
100
100
51.5 0.26 =i: 0.04 0.08
15+ '
154
0.20 ±0.04
0.03
8.9
154
300
56.5 0.35 =i= 0.06 0.13
Educ. level 9-12
Activity between adol.-I5
8-12
170
0.23 ±0.06
0.00
5.7
288
—
46.5'0.49 ±0.n 0.12
13
197
0.15 ±0.03
0.00
4.2
188
44.7 O..33 ± 0,05 ,0.16
14
213
0.10 ±0.03
0.00
4.2
125
—
33.8 0.30 ±0.07 0.09
15+
42
0.08 ±0.03
0.00
3.3
100
—
23.8,0.35 ±0.08 0.33
Educ. level 9-12 Activity between 16-20
8-12
162
0.25 ±0.04
0.07
6.5
156
140
74.7
0.34 ±0.05
0.11
13
196
0.22 ±0.03
0.07
6.3
137
140
73.0i0.30±0.04
0.16
14
207
0.22 ±0,03
0.05
8.1
137
100
68.6
0.31 ±0.05
0.10
15+
58
0.16 ±0.03
0.05
5.1
100
100
62.1
0.25 ±0.04
0.18
Educ. level 13+
Activity between adol.
-15
8-12
893
0.37 ±0.03
0.10
11.4
154
163
73.1
0.51 ±0.04
0.25
13
896
0.35 ±0.02
0.13
13.0
146
125
74.2
0.48 ±0.03
0.28
14
600
0.28 ±0.02
0.08
13.0
117
100
61.2
0.45 ±0.03
0.29
15+
114
0.24 ±0,06
0,00
13.2
100
—
40.4
0.60 ±0.14
0.34
Educ. level 13+
Activity between 16-20
8-12
893
0.41 ±0.02
0.22
13.6
105
100
88.9
0.46 ±0.02
0.27
13
896
0.43 ±0.02
0.27
17.0
110
123
93.4
0.46 ±0.02
0.30
14
600
0.39 ±0.02
0.24
17.5
100
109
90.7
0.44 ±0.03
0.28
15+
170
0.47 ±0.06
0.27
21.2
122
123
91.8
0.52 ±0.06
0.30
Educ. level 13+
Activity between 21-25
8-12
561
0.37 ±0.03
0,19
13.5
100
100
84.7
0.44 ±0,03
0.27
13
566
0.40 ±0.03
0.23
17,7
108
121
89.0
0.45 ±0.03
0.28
14
393
0.37 ±0.03
0.23
17.2
100
121
91.1
0.40 ±0.03
0.27
15+
136
0.46 ±0.06
0.26
21.0
124
137
86.8
0.53 ±0.07
0.31
Table 79. Lack of correlation between nocturnal emissions and age at onset of
adolescence
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
323
have had five years less of sexual activity, are beginning to drop completely
out of the picture; and the rates of this group are definitely lower in these
older age periods.
It is unfortunate that the number of histories now on hand from still
older males is too small to allow further calculations on these points.
It has, however, been possible to calculate correlations between the age of
onset of adolescence and the age of onset of impotence for a small group
of 69 older males. For these cases, the coefficient of correlation proves to
be 0.30. If the results can be trusted on a sample of this size, the low coejffi-
cient indicates that there is in actuality no significant correlation. In other
words, the fact that an individual has started sexual activity in early life
and has had frequent activity throughout a long period of years is not
necessarily responsible for the onset of impotence in his old age. Impotence
is as likely to occur at the same age among those males who did not start
activity until late and whose rates of sexual activity were always low. The
ready assumption which is made in some of the medical literature that
impotence is the product of sexual excess, is not justified by such data as
are now available. Impotence is clearly the product of a great diversity of
physical, physiologic, and psychologic factors, and in each individual case
a multiplicity of factors is likely to be involved.
It will be recalled (Chapter 7) that impotence is in actuality a relatively
rare phenomenon. The clinicians, especially the urologists and endocrin-
ologists, see so many individuals who are badly upset by impotence that
they may find it difficult to believe that the incidence of the phenomenon is
as low as we find it in the population at large; but again it should be
pointed out that a clinic is no place from which to get incidence data.
Impotence in a male under 55 years of age is almost always the product
of psychologic conflict, except in those exceedingly few cases where there
has been mechanical injury of the genitalia or of the portions of the central
nervous system which control erection, or in those similarly few cases
where venereal or other disease has interfered with nervous functions.
There is even some evidence that much of the impotence which is seen in
old age is psychologic in its origin. In a larger number of cases than has
ordinarily been reahzed, there are psychologic problems involving sex
which may not develop until the later years of an individuaFs marriage,
either in connection with his marital intercourse, or in connection with
other sexual activities which the male begins in his more advanced years.
Psychologically, impotence is also predicated among older persons because
they so often expect it; and the psychologic fatigue which follows long
years of sexual experience is a pronhnent factor in the development of
incapacity in old age. It will be recalled (Chapter 7) that only 27 per cent of
the male population becomes impotent by 70 years of age, and that much
older histories would be needed to secure any large number of cases for
PERCENT PERCENT PERCENT
324
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Figure 96. Comparisons of individual variation among early-adolescent and
late-adolescent males
Based on single males. Solid lines show frequency distributions for males who became
adolescent by 12. Broken lines and shaded areas show frequency distributions for males
who did not become adolescent before 15.
AGE OF ADOLESCENCE AND SEXUAL OUTLET
325
a study of the relation of impotence to the age of onset of adolescence.
Certain it is that among persons who become impotent by 70, there are
histories of males who became adolescent at each and every age ; but there
are also histories of males who are still active after sixty or more years of
sexual activities which were maintained at a maximum rate from the time
they first turned adolescent at 10 or 11.
CONCLUSIONS
In fine, the data add up as follows :
1. The males who are first adolescent begin their sexual activity almost
immediately and maintain higher frequencies in sexual activity for a
matter of at least 35 or 40 years.
2. The factors which contribute to this early adolescence apparently
continue to operate for at least these 35 or 40 years.
3. Exercise of the sexual capacities does not seem to impair those capac-
ities, at least as they are exercised by most of the persons who belong in
the highest-rating segment of the population. While it is theoretically
conceivable that very high rates of activity might contribute to physical
impairment, or indirectly to diseased conditions, or to other difficulties
in certain cases, the actual record includes exceedingly few high-rating
males whose activities have had such an outcome.
4. Those individuals who become adolescent late, however, more
often delay the start of their sexual activities and have the minimum fre-
quencies of activity, both in their early years and throughout the remainder
of their lives. If any of these individuals have deliberately chosen low
frequencies in order to conserve their energies for later use, they appear
never to have found the sufficient justification for such a use at any later
time. It is probable that most of these low rating individuals never were
capable of higher rates and never could have increased their rates to match
those of the more active segments of the population.
5. In general, the boys who were first mature are the ones who most
often turn to masturbation and, interestingly enough, to pre-marital socio-
sexual contacts as well. They engage in both heterosexual and homosexual
relations more frequently than the boys who are last in maturing.
There is some reason for thinking that these early-adolescent males are
more often the more alert, energetic, vivacious, spontaneous, physically
active, socially extrovert, and/or aggressive individuals in the population.
Actually, 53 per cent of the early-adolescent boys are so described on their
histories, while only 33 per cent of the late-adolescent boys received such
personality ratings. Conversely, 54 per cent of the males who were last-
adolescent were described as slow, quiet, mild in manner, without force,
326
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
reserved, timid, taciturn, introvert, and/or socially inept, while only 31
per cent of the early-adolescent boys fell under such headings. There are,
of course, some individuals who do not fall clearly into either of these
classifications. Prior to analyzing these data for the present chapter, we
had no indication that we would find this sort of correlation and, conse-
quently, all of the personality notations on the original histories were
made without regard for the ages at which adolescence had occurred.
There is, of course, much individual variation on all of these matters,
and there is no invariable correlation betw'een personalities and rates of
sexual activity. There are some very energetic and socially extrovert indi-
viduals who rate low in their sexual frequencies, and there are quiet and
even timid individuals w^ho have considerable socio-sexual activity.
Behavior is always the product of a multiplicity of factors, no one of which
can be identified as the exclusive or predominant agent in more than some
small portion of the cases which one studies.
There is evidence that the late-maturing males have more limited sexual
capacities which would be badly strained if, through any circumstance,
they tried to raise their rales to the levels maintained by the sexually more
capable persons. If further studies show that some physiologic quality,
such as metabolic rate, works together with or through the hormones to
determine the time of onset of adolescence, it may become a matter of
clinical importance to exercise some control over that event. If this were
done, would the subsequent sexual performance then be affected? Parents
and clinicians may properly be concerned with such questions.
Chapter 10
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
The sexual behavior of the human animal is the outcome of its morpho-
logic and physiologic organization, of the conditioning which its experi-
ence has brought it, and of all the forces which exist in its living and non-
hving environment. In terms of academic disciplines, there are biologic,
psychologic, and sociologic factors involved; but all of these operate
simultaneously, and the end product is a single, unified phenomenon which
is not merely biologic, psychologic, or sociologic in nature. Nevertheless,
the importance of each group of factors can never be ignored.
Without its physical body and its physiologic capacities, there would be
no animal to act. The individual’s sexual behavior is, to a degree, pre-
destined by its morphologic structure, its metabolic capacities, its hor-
mones, and all of the other characters which it has inherited or which have
been built into it by the physical environment in which it has developed.
Two of the most important of these distinctively biologic forces, age and
the age at onset of adolescence, have been examined in the earlier chapters
of the present volume.
But through all of the previous chapters, constant consideration has
been given to the significance of the psychologic factors which affect sexual
behavior, and it should be apparent by now that the experience of the
individual, the satisfactory or unsatisfactory nature of that experience, the
conformance or non-conformance of that experience with the individual’s
personality, attitudes, and rational thinking, and a great variety of other
factors make the psychologic bases of behavior even more important than
the biologic heritage and acquirements.
It is evident, however, that psychologic processes depend, to a consider-
able degree, upon the way in which external forces impinge upon the
animal. For a creature with as highly organized a central nervous system
as is found in the human animal, the most important external force is the
social environment in which it lives. In the human species, the environ-
ment consists of one’s family, his close friends, his neighbors, his business
associates, and his mere acquaintances. It also includes the thousands of
other persons whom he has never seen but whose attitudes, habits, ex-
pressed opinions, and overt activities constitute the culture in which he
moves and fives. These are the social forces which contribute to the indi-
vidual’s behavior. There is, of course, no part of the individual himself
which is social in nature, in quite the way that morphologic, physiologic,
327
328
SEXUAL BERWIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
or psychologic capacities may be identified and localized in an organism.
Occasionally social forces provide physical restraints on individuals, or
facilitate their physical activities: but more often they operate only as they
affect the individual psychologically.
EDUC.
LEVEL
ATTAINED
Occupational Class
CASES
IN
EDUC.
LEVEL
2
DAY
LABOR
3
SEMI-
SKILLED
LABOR
4
SKILLED
LABOR
5
LOWER
WHITE
COLLAR
6
UPPER
\\ HITE
COLLAR
7
PRO-
FES-
SIONAL
8
BU.SI-
NFSS
EXECU-
TIVE
%
%
%
0/
%
%
0
4.6
1.1
0.7
0.2
26
1
1.3
0.4
0.0
0.0
7
2
3.8
1.1
0,7
0.2
23
3
4.1
3.2
2.9
0.2
39
4
7.6
4.3
3.6
61
5
7.6
6.1
1.4
0,2
67
6
9.6
6.8
5.8
1.8
92
7
15.2
9.3
12.9
2.0
139
8
22.9
26.4
23.7
6.8
1.6
309
9
8.6
11.1
3.6
4.1
0.4
121
10
8.6
13.7
9.4
6.5
1.0
158
11
2.8
6.3
5.8
6.5
1.6
90
12
3.3
8.6
22.3
27.6
5.0
6.3
239
13
0.7 i
3.6
12.0
2.7
76
14
0.7
0.7
11.0
5.8
84
15
0.2
0.7
6.3
4.5
0,3
55
16
2.2
8.3
25,3
0.9
18.8 1
181
17
3.4
22.7
2.0
0,0 1
145
18
2.0
21.9
6.6
12.5 1
167
19
0.7
5.2
6.1
18.8 i
73
20+
0.2
1 2.3
!
84.1
43.6 :
i 567
Total %
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0 1
2719
Cases in oc-
cup. class
394
559
139
444
516
651 ;
i
16 1
! i
2719
Mean educ.
Median educ.
6.23
6.78
7.59
7.69
8.57
7.95
11.84
11.80
15.68
16.11
19.20
19.41
17.81
18.69
Table 80. Relation between educational level and occupational class of subjects
in present sample
Based on those males in the present sample who have finished their educational careers.
The present chapter and the three chapters which follow are concerned
with the relation of the individuaFs pattern of sexual behavior to patterns
which are followed by other persons in the same social group — in the group
in which the individual is raised, or into which he moves and establishes
himself in the course of his lifetime.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
329
DEFINING SOCIAL LEVELS
The data now available show that patterns of sexual behavior may be
strikingly different for the different social levels that exist in the same city
or town, and sometimes in immediately adjacent sections of a single com-
munity. The data show that divergencies in the sexual patterns of such
social groups may be as great as those which anthropologists have found
between the sexual patterns of different racial groups in remote parts of the
world. There is no American pattern of sexual behavior, but scores of
patterns, each of which is confined to a particular segment of our society.
Within each segment there are attitudes on sex and patterns of overt
activity which are followed by a high proportion of the individuals in that
group; and an understanding of the sexual mores of the American people
as a whole is possible only through an understanding of the sexual patterns
of all of the constituent groups.
These social levels are, admittedly, intangible divisions of the popula-
tion which are difficult to define; but they are recognized by everyone as
real and significant factors in the life of a community. In the present study,
the social level of each subject has been measured by three criteria: 1. The
educational level, in years, which the individual has reached by the time he
terminates his formal education (Chapter 3). 2. The occupational class to
which the individual belongs (as such classes have been defined in Chapter
3). 3. The occupational class of the individual’s parents at the time that
he lived in the parental home.
There are, of course, certain correlations among these three criteria.
The educational level ultimately attained determines, to some degree, the
occupation which an individual follows. The nature of the correlation is
shown in Table 80, where it will be observed that certain educational levels
send people into several of the occupational classes, while other educational
levels (e.g., the one which includes those who have done graduate work in
a university) send nearly all of their members into a single occupational
class. It is understandable, therefore, that analyses of sexual behavior
made on the basis of ultimate educational level give results which are close
to those obtained by the use of a system of occupational classes.
The ultimate educational level attained by an individual shows a limited
correlation with intelligence quotients (Lorge 1942). The correlations have
been shown to run about 0.66, which may mean that there is some trend
for the more intelhgent students to continue in school. It also indicates,
however, that there are some perfectly intelligent individuals who stop
school long before they have reached the limits of their capacities ; and that
there are some less intelhgent individuals who, by dint of work or fortuitous
circumstance, manage to get further along in school than their capacities
would predicate. Since there may be some correlation between mental
330
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
capacity and the nature of the occupation which an individual chooses,
here is another reason for one’s educational level correlating with his
occupational class.
Educational Level as a Criterion. The educational level attained by an
individual by the time he terminates his schooling has proved to be the
simplest and the best-defined means for recognizing social levels (see
Chapter 3 for details of the way in which this criterion has been used).
Social level is not necessarily controlled by the amount of schooling that
an individual has had, but the amount of schooling does provide a measure
of more basic factors which determine one’s social level.
Each level has its own attitudes toward education and, consequently, a
high proportion of the persons in any level go to about the same point in
school. One group allows its children to terminate their schooling at the
eighth grade, or as soon thereafter as the law allows ; and in that group
there is a general acceptance of the idea that it is a waste of time to send
children further along in school when they might be earning wages and
contributing to the family income. There is no community action which
formalizes these things and some individuals in the community may dis-
agree with the general attitude; but by and large the children hear the
group opinion so often expressed that they come to accept it and look for-
ward to the time when they will be allowed to quit school. The individ-
uals in another social level believe that their children should go part way,
or perhaps fully, through high school. Going to college is the expected and
more or less inevitable thing for the children of other social groups.
Persons who depart from the educational trends of their particular level
do so against the community opinion and must be ready to defend them-
selves for their independent action. This is as true of the professor’s son
who decides to go to work at the end of high school as it is of the lower
level boy who strikes out for a college education. The boy or girl who
departs from the custom is quickly made aware of the fact that he has done
something as unusual as wearing the wrong kind of clothing to a social
event, or using his table silver in a fashion which is recognized as not good
manners in that group. There are no penalties attached to departures from
the custom, except those of being made to feel different from the com-
munity of which one has previously considered himself a part. Such penal-
ties, however, may control behavior as effectively as though they were
physical restraints.
During the past thirty or forty years, there has been a considerable
departure of younger generations from the educational levels attained by
their parents (Table 106); but almost always this has been in the direction
of an increase in the amount of education which the younger persons re-
ceive. The idea of a boy or girl being satisfied with less education than his
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET 331
parents had is so abhorrent as to be rarely accepted, and most people are
startled when they find an individual case of such regression.
Educational level is a convenient criterion for statistical use because it
provides a well-defined, simple figure which is discrete and does not vary
in the individual’s lifetime, after he has once finished his schooling.
Educational level cannot be used for studying the histories of persons who
are still in school, since there is no certainty how far they will go before
they finally terminate their education. Educational level is not a satisfactory
basis for analysis when the individual changes his social level in the course
of his life.
Occupational Class as a Criterion. It has been pointed out (Chapter 3)
that a modification of the Chapin and Lloyd Warner schemes of occupa-
tional classes (Chapin 1933, HoUingshead 1939, Warner and Lunt 1941,
1942, Warner and Srole 1945) is the basis for the analyses made in the
present study. In brief, the following classes are recognized:
0. Dependents
1. Underworld
2. Day labor
3. Semi-skilled labor
4. Skilled labor
5. Lower white collar group
6. Upper white collar group
7. Professional group
8. Business executive group
9. Extremely wealthy group
Occupational classes are more poorly defined than educational levels.
Whether an individual belongs in one occupational group or the next not
infrequently calls for a judgment in which equally skilled investigators
might disagree, although experience in the present research indicates that
the judgments are not often more than one occupational class apart.
Whether a person is a laborer or a semi-skilled workman, whether he is a
semi-skilled or a skilled workman, is not always possible to say; but in
most cases it is possible to make a definite classification. Labor unions
often define the occupational qualities of their members. Whether a person
is a mechanic or a white collar worker is rarely in dispute; but whether the
white collar worker belongs to class 5 (the lower white collar group) or
class 6 (the upper white collar group), is sometimes more difficult to say.
This makes occupational class less precise than educational level for
measuring social status.
On the other hand, classifications by occupation probably show a closer
correlation with the intangible realities of social organization, since this
classification is designed to express the social prestige of the work with
332
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN NULE
which the individual is occupied. The use of occupational class provides
the best opportunity, and the only opportunity we have had, to take into
account the migrations of an individual from one social level to another
within his lifetime; and all of the data given in the next chapter on the
relation of such migration to changes in patterns of sexual behavior have
been derived from this source. With younger persons who are still at home,
it will be recalled that their occupational class is derived from that of their
parents (their “ascribed status” as some anthropologists have put it).
Younger individuals who are just beginning to establish themselves away
from their parents’ home are often involved in more menial occupations,
and sometimes in occupations totally different from those which they will
ultimately work into (the latter is “the achieved status” in the anthro-
pological terminology) ; and in this case, occupational class is not a good
means of measuring social level
In this and the next chapter, references to occupational class are usually
made as double entries which include the parental class in which the sub-
ject originated, and the ultimate class into which the subject independently
migrated.
Realities of Social Levels. If there were invariable correlations between
education, occupation, and the social organization of our society, “social
levels” would be recognized as realities which could easily be delimited.
That there is no invariable relation means that such levels are difficult to
define; but that does not prove that they are not realities. Quite on the
contrary, each child soon becomes aware of the social classification to
which he belongs, and learns the boundaries of the group wdthin which he
is allowed to move. Each adult lives and moves and does his thinking, to
a considerable degree, in accord with the movements and the thinking of
other persons who have about the same education and who usually belong
to the same occupational class. While there are no sharp boundaries to
social levels, there are obstacles to the crossing of those boundaries.
Social levels are hierarchies which are not supposed to exist in a demo-
cratic society, and many people would, therefore, deny their existence. In
this country we make it a point that there should be no physical barriers
nor legal codes which forbid people to move with almost any social group.
But while there are, admittedly, a few persons who do move between
groups, most persons do not in actuality move freely with those who belong
to other levels. Each group recognizes its unity, and its distinction from
every other group.
In their occupations or professional activities, persons of different social
levels may have a certain amount of daily contact, but their close friends
and companions are more hkely to come from their own groups. The white
collar executive and the office force may work only a few feet away from the
factory laborers and mechanics, but they do not really work with them;
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
333
and in their recreations, after hours, the two groups rarely intermingle.
Persons in the one group do not invite persons from the other group to
their homes for dinner, or for an evening of conversation, games, or other
activities. One’s companions in a card game or around a fireplace are a
better test of one’s social position than are one’s business contacts, or
even one’s verbalization of his social philosophy.
Within the white collar groups, for instance, there are several levels of
social organization. Store clerks and office staffs do not move freely with
the business executive groups, outside of their business relations. Persons
in professional groups have few intimates among any but the better busi-
ness and professional men. Doctors may serve persons on both sides of the
tracks, but in off hours they visit and find their recreations with other
doctors, with some business men, or with college professors. The profes-
sional group is not particularly at home with financially successful business
men, nor with persons from the Social Register and the top social strata,
unless the professional persons themselves happen to have inherited such
financial or social backgrounds. These social stratifications are very real,
even though they are difficult to define.
Social levels are not necessarily determined by the economic status of
an individual. School teachers belong to a white collar class which is
generally looked up to by working classes although the working classes
may have considerably higher incomes than school teachers ever will have.
The fact that the janitor in the school may earn more than the teacher in
the same building does not admit him to the social activities of the teacher’s
group. Conversely, the lesser salary of the teacher does not give her the
entree into the group with which the janitor finds his recreation. For such
reasons, neither the current income nor the general economic status of an
individual has been used in the present study as a criterion for establishing
social levels.
It is, moreover, difficult to know what an income may be worth in a
particular instance. An income of a couple of thousand a year would
provide a very comfortable living for certain families, although it might
spell poverty for the next family whose esthetic and cultural ideals demand
much more to satisfy them. Moreover, the dollar has a different purchasing
power in different cities and towns in different parts of the country, and it
may vary within a single community, depending upon the standards of
dress, of entertainment, and of social front which one must maintain in the
particular social level to which he belongs. There are economic rating
scales which are designed to take these many items into account; but any
such scale, in order to be effective, needs to be so detailed that its use in
anything but an economic survey is prohibitive. The better economic rating
scales take about as long to administer as the entire interview on which
the present case history study has been based.
334
SEXUAL BEHAMOR I\ THE HUMAN MALE
The U. S. Department of Labor has used a job classification (U, S. Dept.
Labor 1939) which assigns each indi\idual in accord with the inherent
nature of the occupation or profession in which he engages. Specifically,
the classification is as foliow's:
1. Professional and managerial occupations
2. Service occupations
3. Agricultural, forestry, fisheries, and kindred occupations
4-5. Skilled occupations
6-7. Semi-skilled occupations
8-9. Unskilled occupations
There is obviously a certain amount of agreement betw’een this arrange-
ment and the occupational classes used in the present study, f.e., an eco-
nomic classification does coincide with one like the Chapin and Warner
classification which is based on the social prestige of one's occupation.
There are, however, considerable departures betw'een the tw’o systems. For
instance, the professional group in the job classification includes college
presidents and professors, accountants, actors, newspaper reporters and
copy men, all teachers, all social w'orkers, and all trained nurses. The list
includes persons wLo have advanced degrees for several years of univer-
sity post-graduate work, persons w'ho have had no more than twelfth
grade education aixl, in some cases, those who have had nothing more than
grade schooling. Socially the group is not a unit. The persons included do
not come together in their strictly social* activities. Grade school and high
school teachers do not move in the same social groups as college professors.
Business managers, who, in many cases, are economically much better off
than college professors, are not ordinarily included in the social activities
of the professional groups. Trained nurses in most instances have no more
than twelve grades of regular schooling. In the same fashion, the several
manufacturing groups and the agricultural groups in this classification
include persons who are day laborers and persons w^ho are foremen and
managers; and these several groups do not mingle socially. Economic and
job classifications are set up, of course, to serve a totally different purpose
from the one with which a student of the social organization or of the
mores is most often concerned. It is unfortunate that so many social
studies, including army surveys and most other governmental studies, and
even some of the public opinion polls have used this job classification
where a social level rating of the sort employed in the present study would
have served much better.
The reality of this intangible unit called a social level is further attested
by the fact that each group has sexual mores which are, to a degree, dis-
tinct from those of all other levels. Most people realize that each group
wears clothing of a particular quality and of a particular style, that the
styles of their clothing differ especially at social events, that there are
differences in food habits, in table manners, in the forms of their social
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
335
courtesies, in vocabularies and in pronunciations, and in the sorts of things
to which they turn for recreation. Among social scientists there has been
some recognition of these differences, more particularly in European
countries where the social hierarchies are older and more fixed and even
legally recognized; but there has been scant recognition of the possibility
that the sexual patterns of different social levels might differ in any partic-
ular way. The remarkably distinct patterns of sexual behavior which
characterize these social levels are the subject of the analyses which follow
in the present chapter. It is to be noted that the analyses are made for each
criterion, educational level, and occupational class, separately. The close
identities of the sexual records thus independently arrived at constitute
some of the best evidence yet available that social categories are realities
in our Anglo-American culture.
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
In the present chapter and the one that follows, comparisons of patterns
of sexual behavior in different social levels are made for educational levels
and for occupational classes of the parent and of the subject. Comparisons
are made for three educational groups: grade school, high school, and
college. The sample now at hand is not large enough to allow a finer
classification. Preliminary analyses on a two-year educational breakdown
indicate that a smoothly graded series lies between each of the three groups
utilized in this chapter, but the data are insufficient for final publication.
We do have a college population which is large enough to break down into
finer educational levels, but it became available at too late a date to be
included in the present volume.
The occupational classes utilized in the present analyses are 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
and 7, as defined above. Class 0, the dependents, should not rate as a
separate group in such analyses, and classes 1, 8, and 9 are not represented
by large enough series in the sample to allow the six- way breakdown needed
here.
Total Outlet* The frequencies of total sexual outlet vary somewhat with
the educational level to which an individual belongs (Table 81, Figure 97),
although they do not differ as much as the frequencies for the several
sources of outlet. Among single males, at all ages, and whether the calcu-
lations are made as means or as medians, the highest total outlets are
found among those boys who go into high school but never beyond. This
is true while they are still in grade school, while they are in high school,
and after they have left high school. While they are in grade school they
may associate with boys who Will stop school at every level. Nevertheless,
during these school years their outlets average 10 to 20 per cent higher than
the outlets of the boys who will stop by the eighth grade, and 20 to 30 per
cent higher than the outlets of the boys who will ultimately go to college.
12 '
336
SEXUAL BEHAMOR IN TllE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet by Educational Lfxtls
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
total population
ACTIVE POPULATION
1
Mean
Frequency '
Median
Freq.
1
i 1
Incid. ; Mean
% : Frequency
Median
1 Freq.
Single Males
Adol.-15
0-8
712
3.02 =fc: 0.14
1.74
91.3
: 3.31 * 0.15 i
2.08
9-12
606
3.34 =fc 0.15
2.29
95.4
' 3.51 =t 0.15 i
2.46
13+
2799
2.83 =i= 0.05
2.20
95.8
i 2.95 ±0.05
1 t
2.32
16-20
0-8
720
3.22=i=0.13
2.16 1
97.5
: 3.30 ± 0.14
2.24
9-12
607
3.53 ±0.14
2.66
99.7
3.54 ± 0.14
2.67
13 +
2861
2.70 ±0.07
2.12
99.8
I 2.71 0.07
2. 12
21-25
0-8
361
3.15 ±0.20
1.94
96.7
1 3.26 ± 0.21
2.03
9-12
263
3.00 ±0.20
2.24
99.2
' 3.02 ±0.20,
2.26
13 +
1898
2.49 ± 0.05
L87
99.8
; 2.49 ± 0.05 ;
i 1
1.88
26-30
0-8
159
3.01 ±0.28
1.97
98.7
i 3.05 ± 0.28 *
2.00
9-12
117
2.88 ±0.26
2.05
99.1
i 2.91 ± 0.26
2.07
13 +
487
2.57 ± 0.12
1.83
99.8
: 2.57 ±0.12*
1.83
Mamed Males
16-20
0-8
158
4.67 ±0.41
3.06
100.0
i 4.67 ±0.41
3.06
9-12
87
5.05 ±0.52
3.57
100.0
5.05 ± 0.52
3.57
13+
46
4.13 ±0.54
3.21
100.0
4.13 ±0.54
3.21
21-25
0-8
324
4.02 ±0.25
2.62
100.0
4.02 ±0.25
2.62
9-12
164
4,15 ±0.34
2.86
100.0
4.15 ±0.34
2.86
13+
440
3.70 ±0.13
3.06
100.0
3.70±0.13
3.06
26-30
0-8
292
3.51 ±0.24
2.42
99.3
3.53 ±0.24
2.44
9-12
135
3.55 ±0.31
2.53
100.0
3.55 ±0.31
2.53
13 +
532
3.19±0.11
2,64
100.0
3.19 ±0.11
2.64
31-35
0-8
186
2.58 ±0.20
1.88
100.0
2.58 ±0.20
1.88
9-12
82
3.35 ±0.39
2.53
100.0
3.35 ±0.39
2.53
13+
301
2,65 ±0.13
2.16
100.0
2.65 ±0.13
2.16
36-40
0-8
143
2.26 ±0.18
1.71
100.0
2.26 ±0.18
1.71
9-12
58
2.64 ±0.38
2.04
100.0
2.64 ±0.38
2.04
13+
189
2.56 ±0.20
2.02
99.5
2.51 ±0.20
2.02
41-45
0-8
100
1.87 ±0.20
1,43
100.0
1.87 ±0.20
1.43
13 +
138
1,98 ±0.14
1.69
100.0
1.98 ±0.14
1.69
Table 81. Total sexual outlet, as related to educational level
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
337
It is obvious that such differences are not the product of something that
the school contributes or fails to contribute, for the same school is sup-
porting three very different patterns of sexual behavior at the same time.
The differences must be dependent upon something which the boy has
acquired from the community in which he was raised before he went to
school, in which he lives while he is attending school, and in which he will
continue to live after he quits school; or else these higher frequencies must
be dependent upon some physical or physiologic capacity which these
particular boys have and which is correlated with the progress of their
schooling. Either social or biological factors, or both, might conceivably
be operating.
A finer educational breakdown than the one which is shown in Table 81
suggests that the sexually most active group is the one that goes into high
school but not beyond tenth grade. Since the laws in many states set a
minimum age which must be attained before a boy or girl can stop school,
it often happens that there is a considerable exodus of students who attain
the age of sixteen (or whatever other age the particular state requires),
somewhere about the middle of their high school careers. The boys who
leave school at that time may represent a group that is not particularly
studious, whatever its mental ability may be, and a group which is impatient
of such confinement as the school offers and energetic in its pursuit of
physical activity and social contacts. These are, however, merely hypoth-
eses which need further investigation.
The single males who have the lowest frequencies of total sexual outlet
are those who belong to the college level. The boys who never go beyond
eighth grade in school stand intermediate between the high school and the
college groups, as far as the calculations in Table 81 show. It is to be
recalled, however, that the breakdown in Chapter 9 indicates that early-
adolescent males of this lower educational level actually have higher outlets
than any other group in the population, in practically every age period.
The over-all averages shown for the grade school males as a group are
probably pulled down by the large number of undernourished, physically
poor, and, therefore, late-maturing males who are in this class. It includes
most of the feeble-minded and mentally lower individuals in the popula-
tion, and many of these are physically poor and sexually inactive. But the
physically well-developed and mentally normal individuals among these
grade school boys are more active than the boys of any other educational
level.
The social level picture for total outlet among married males is quite the
same as for single males. The married males who have the highest total
outlet are those who went into high school but not beyond. This is true
for every age group between 16 and 40 years of age, and may be true at
older ages ; but the data beyond 45 become too scant for significant calcula-
338
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
tion. It is impressive to find that what is true of populations in their teens
usually holds true for those same populations at later ages, throughout
the life span. Only a very few individuals ever depart from their original
patterns.
If the record for total outlet is analyzed on the basis of occupational
classes (Table 107), it will be seen that there is as sharp and as consistent a
differentiation of groups as there is on the basis of educational level The
highest rates of total outlet are to be found among the males who belong to
occupational class 3. This is as true of these males when they are boys
living at home with their parents as it is of the same persons at older ages,
when they are independent of their parents. On the other hand, males who
TOTAL OUTLET
Qccupkjmki
CLASS
2
l.4x
■ 3 .
1.3 X A
m
5 _
►x t.Ox
I 6 _
Figure 97. Total outlet, by educational level and occupational class
For single males of the age group 16-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups.
belong to class 3 have about the same rates of total outlet, irrespective of
whether their parents belonged to classes 3, 4, or 5. Since occupational
class 3 is the one that includes semi-skilled workers, it contains a great
many persons who do not go beyond grade school, and almost none of
them go beyond high school (Table 80); and the generalizations based on
occupational classes agree very well with the generalizations based upon
educational levels. Since the occupational classes are not as sharply defined
as educational levels, the frequency series are not quite as consistent as the
frequencies shown by the educational breakdown.
The lowest rates of total outlet are to be found in occupational class 4.
This is the group which includes the skilled mechanics. The group has very
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
339
diverse educational backgrounds (Table 80), and in Chapter 1 1 it will be
pointed out that it is the most unstable of all occupational classes. Mem-
bers of this group often aspire to move into higher levels, and they send a
high proportion of their children to college.
In general, the white collar groups (classes 5, 6, and 7) are low in their
rates ; but of these class 7 shows the highest rates. This is the professional
group. It usually has 17 to 20 years of schooling. The group has not been
calculated separately in the educational breakdowns made in this volume,
and it will be interesting to see what such a breakdown ultimately gives.
Masturbation. Ultimately, between 92 and 97 per cent of all males have
masturbatory experience (Tables 82, 132, Figures 98, 136). The accumula-
tive incidence figures are hardly different for the high school and college
groups^ but the lower figure (92%) belongs to the grade school group. The
highest active incidence between the ages of adolescence and 15 is to be
found among the boys who never go beyond high school. In later age
periods the college males have the highest incidence.
The highest frequencies of masturbation among single males, in all age
periods, are in the college level, whether the calculations are made for
total populations or for the active portions of the populations (that por-
tion of the population which is actually utilizing this source of outlet).
Between 16 and 20, for instance, masturbation among the single males of
college level occurs nearly twice as frequently as it does among the boys
who never go beyond grade school, and the differential is still higher in the
twenties. This is the great source of pre-marital sexual outlet for the upper
educational levels. For that group, masturbation provides nearly 80 per
cent of the orgasms during the earlier adolescent years, as against little
more than half the outlet (52%) for the lower educational level. In the late
teens it still accounts for two-thirds (66%) of the college male’s orgasms,
while the lower level has relegated such activity to a low place that pro-
vides less than 30 per cent of the total outlet. In all later age periods the
relative positions of these groups remain about the same.
Differences in incidences and frequencies of masturbation at different
educational levels are even more striking among married males. At the
grade school level, there are only 20 to 30 per cent who masturbate in their
early marital years, and the accumulative incidence figure climbs only a bit
during the later years of marriage. The frequencies are very low. The high
school group closely matches the grade school group in this regard* On the
other hand, among the married males who have been to college, 60 to 70
per cent masturbate in each of the age periods.
In the grade school group of married males, only 1 to 3 per cent of the
total sexual outlet is derived from masturbation. The proportion of the
total sexual outlet derived by college males from this source begins at 8.5
340
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Masturbation, by Educational Levels
AGE EDUC.
GROUP LEVEL
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
ACCUM.
incid.
/o
Mean
Median
%of
Total
Outlet
j 1
Incid. j Mean j Median
Frequency
Freq.
% ; Freq. 1 Freq.
i '
1 1
Single Males
Adol.
-15
0-8
712
1.55
=fc:
0.078
0.85
52.25
84.7
1.84
1.12
1 84
9-12
606
1.93
=i=
0.089
1.22
59.08
89.9
2.15
1.44
* 90
13+
2799
2.22
=fc;
0.048
1.61
79.62
82.4
2.70
2.06
82
16-20
0-8
720
0.93
=1=
0.048'
0.45
29.15*
84.4
l.IO
I 0.61
i
90
9-12
607
1.30
=t=
0.074
0.69
37 . 17 !
89.0
1.46
I 0.84
94
134-
2861 !
1.79
=b
0.038
1.18
66.37|
88.6 1
2.02
, 1 . 50
91
21-25
0-8
361
0.63
=b
0.057
0.18
20 . 15 !
62.3 :
1.01
0.50
91
9-12
263 i
0.87
dr
0.076
0.37
29.67*
76.4 i
1.13
I 0.63
95
134-
1898
1.31
dr
0.039
0.68
53.31
87.0
1.50
0.86
94
26-30
0-8
1
159 i
0.59
dr
0.087
0.07 I
20.68
60.4
0.97 1
0.48
92
9-12
117
0.78
dr
0.095
0.35
27.69
78.6
0.99
0.47
97
13 +
487
1.18
dr
0.081
0.48
45.88:
83.2
1.42
0.73
96
Married Males
16-20
0-8
158
!
iO.ll
dr
0.031
0.00
1
2.40
28.5
0.39
0.14
29
9-12
87
10.14
da
0.048
0.00
2.75
39.1
! 0.35
0.08
39
13+
46
j
|0.35
=b
0.14
0.05
8.53
63.0
i 0.55
0.19
63
21-25
0-8
1 324
io.io
dr
0.020
0.00
2.43
28.7
1 0.34
0.09
29
9-12
164
0.15
dr
0.037
0.00
3.70
41.5
0.37
0.09
42
13+
440
0.32
dr
0.030
j 0.06
8.79
65.9
0.49
0.22
68
26-30
0-8
292
0.09
0.024
1 0.00
2.44
21.2
0.40
0.08
29
9-12
135
0.18
dr
0.046
0.00
5.05*
37.0
0.48
0.10
42
1 13+
532
0.27
d =
0.023
0.06
8.671
66.4
0.41
0.18
69
31-35
0-8
186
0.05
rfc
0.019
0.00
1.79*
19.4
0.24 *
0.07
29
9-12
82
0.13
rfc
0.045
0.00
4.04
36.6
0.37
0. 10
42
13+ !
301
0.24
dr
0.03
0.05
9.28
64.1
0.38
0.13
69
36-40
0-8
143
0.04
d =
0.013
0.00
1.59
11.2 *
0.32
0.20
29
9-12
58
0.08
d=
0.030
0.00
3.15
25.9 i
0.32
0.18
42
13+
189
0.21
dr
0.036
0.03
8.26
59.3 !
0.35
0.09
69
41-45
0-8
100
0.03
dr
0.013
0.00
1.41
9.0
0.30
0.23
29
13 +
138
0.19
d =
0.043
0.02
9.71
55.1
0.34
0.09
69
Table 82 . Masturbation, as related to educational level
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
341
per cent during the early years of marriage, and rises to as much as 18
per cent in the later years. The college group stands out as perfectly dis-
tinct on this score.
Among occupational classes, the professional group masturbates most
frequently (Table 108, Figure 98). This is true whether the persons in that
class originate from parental class 7, or whether they come- from parental
classes 3, 4, or 6. Since essentially all professional persons have an educa-
tional rating of 17+ these data from an occupational class analysis are
quite in Hne with the data based on educational levels. The distinctions
between occupational classes are, however, even more extreme than the
differences between educational levels, as far as masturbation is concerned.
MASTURBATION
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
1.0 X
OCCUPATIONAL
CLASS
■
I.Ox
7
Figure 98. Masturbation, by educational level and occupational class
For single males of the age group 1 6-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
Between the ages of 16 and 20, for instance, the males of occupational
class 7 have average frequencies of masturbation which run 2.12, 2.17, 2.21,
and 1.60 per week, varying with the parental occupational class from which
they came. The corresponding groups of occupational classes 2 and 3 have
masturbatory frequencies which run very close to 1 per week — sometimes
a bit more, sometimes a bit less in the various breakdowns. The educational
breakdown for. the same age period shows the college level masturbating
with frequencies which are about 1.9 times the frequencies of the grade
school males. Differences in the frequencies of the occupational classes are
more nearly of the order of 2.2 to 2.5. Differences in attitudes on mastur-
bation, pre-marital intercourse, and prostitution are among the most
342
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions,
BY Educational Levels
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULAnON |
ACCUM.
INCID,
o/
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq,
1
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
0/
/o
Mean
Freq,
j 1
I Median
1 Freq.
Single Males
AdoL
-15
0-8
712
0.05 =1=0.01
0.00
1.82
25.4
0.21
0.08
26
9-12
606
0.15 0.02
0.00
4.44
39.6
0.37
0 12
39
13+
2799
0. 34 =1= O.OI
1
0,10
12.15
69.8
0.48
0.28
70
16-20
0-8
720
0.15 #=0,01
0.02
4.83
56.4
0.27
0.09 :
65
9-12
607
0.22 =1=0.02 j
0.06
6.33
70.7
0.31
0.13 '
71
13 +
2861
0.42 =1=0.01
0.25
15.65
91.2
0.46
0.29
94
21-25
0-8
361
0.16 #^0.02
0.03
5.02
59,6
0.26
0.09
73
9-12
263
0.24 =i= 0.02
0.08
8.10
71.1
0.33
0.20
82
13 +
1898
0.38 #= 0,01
0.22
15.67:
87.0
0.44
j
0.28
96
26-30
0-8
159
0.18 =#0,03
0.04
6.26i
64.8
0.27
0.09
79
9-12
117
0.21 =# 0.03 ,
0.08
7.48
70.1
0.30
0.20
86
13 +
487
0.31 *0.02i
0.18
11.93
85 2
1
0.36
0.25
97
Married Males
16-20
0-8
158
0.14
db
0.03
0.00
3.08
48.1
0.30
0.08
9-12
87
0.10
=t=
0.02
0.02
2.04
54.0
0.19
0.10
13 +
46
0.12
=h
0,03
0.03
2.99
58.7
0.21
0.09
21-25
0-8 j
324
0.11
0.02
0.00
2.79
45.1
0.25
0.08
9-12 *
164
0.12
=i=
0.01
0.04
2.85
63.4
0.18
0.09
13#=
440
0.17
0.02
0.05
4.65
66.4
0.26
0.09
26-30
0-8
292
0.12
=b
0.02
0.00
3.41 i
47.3
0.25
0.08
9-12
135
0.11
=1=
0.02
0.02
3.22:
56.3
0.20
0.09
13 +
532
0.15
=#
0.01
1
0.05
4.69
73.5
0.20
0.08
31-35
0-8
186
0.08
=i=
0.02
0.00
3.03
39.8
0.20
0,07
9-12
82
0.13
0.03
0.02
3.79
56.1
0.22
0,09
13 +
301
0.15
=j_
0.02
0.05
5.71
74.8
!
0.20
; 0.08
36-40
0-8
' 143 j
0.04
5#
0.01
0,00
1.85
29.4
0.14
0.07
1 9-12
58
0.12
#=
0.03
0.01
4.48
51.7
0.23
0.09
13+
189
0.15
St
0.02
0.06
6.06
72.0
0.21
0,09
41-45
0-8
100
0,04
cb
0.01
0.00
2.25
31,0
0.14
0,07
13+
138
0.11
0.01
0.05
5.87
72.5
0.16
0.08
Table 83. Nocturnal emissions, as related to educational level
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
343
marked of all the distinctions between social levels, and this is true whether
the calculations are made by educational levels or by occupational classes.
The professional males who originated in parental class 5, becoming
members of class 7 as a result of their university training, have masturba-
tory rates which are 25 per cent lower than those of class 7 males who are
derived from any other source. It is a striking situation for which we have
no explanation at this time.
Nocturnal Emissions. Masturbation may appear to be volitional behavior,
and one may question whether the pattern in masturbation represents the
individual’s choice, rather than something that has been imposed upon
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
0-8
9-12
13 +
Figure 99. Nocturnal emissions, by educational level and occupational class
For single males of the age group 16-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
him by the mores of his group. It is, therefore, particularly interesting to
find that there are still greater differences between educational levels in
regard to nocturnal emissions — a type of sexual outlet which one might
suppose would represent involuntary behavior.
Nocturnal emissions occur most often in that segment of the population
that goes to college (Table 83, Figure 99). Among males of the college level
the emissions begin at earlier ages than among males of lower educational
levels. About 70 per cent of the boys who will go to college have such
experience by age 15, whereas only about 25 per cent of the grade school
group has started by then. Between 16 and 20 years of age, 91 per cent of
the single males of the college level experience nocturnal emissions, while
344
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
only 56 per cent of the lower level boys have such experience in the same
period. The active incidence figures are highest for the college males in
every other age group. Ultimately, nearly 100 per cent of the better edu-
cated males have such experience, whereas the accumulative incidence
figure is only 86 per cent for the high school group, and only 75 per cent
for the grade school group.
Between adolescence and age 15, upper level males average nocturnal
emissions nearly seven times as frequently as the boys of lower educational
levels. Between 16 and 20 the frequencies among the upper level males
are nearly three times those for the lower level, if the whole population is
PETTING TO CLIMAX
OCCUPATIONAL
CLASS
2
I.Ox
3
4
5
6
7
Figure 100. Petting to climax, by educational level and occupational class
For single males of the age group 16—20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
involved in the calculation. For the active populations the frequencies for
the college group are still twice as high. About the same differences hold
in the older age periods, at least up to 30 years of age.
In marriage there are only minor differences between the educational
levels in frequencies of nocturnal emissions, but the highest incidence
figures at all ages are to be found among the males who have gone to
college. Before marriage, college-bred males draw between 12 and 15 per
cent of their outlet from nocturnal emissions, while the males of lower
educational levels draw only 5 or 6 per cent of their outlet from that source.
After marriage the college males draw 3 to 6 per cent of their outlet from
emissions, but the lower educational levels never draw over 3 per cent from
that source.
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
0-8
9-12
L.Sx
15 +
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
345
While it is clear that higher frequencies of nocturnal emissions are cor-
related with more extended educational histories, the explanation of this
correlation is not so apparent. It is evident that nocturnal dreams are not
the product of the education in itself, for two groups of boys of different
social levels, working together in the same class in grade school or in high
school, may have totally different histories of emissions. Is this a measure
of some difference in the psychologic or physiologic capacities of the two
groups which correlates in some way with factors which determine their
educational careers? These are problems which the physiologist and the
psychologist will want to investigate in more elaborate detail.
We do know that the frequencies of nocturnal dreams show some corre-
lation with the level of erotic responsiveness of an individual. The boys of
lower level are not so often aroused erotically, nor aroused by so many
items as the boys from the upper educational levels. Nocturnal dreams
may depend upon an imaginative capacity, in something of the same way
that daytime eroticism is dependent upon the individual’s capacity to
project himself into a situation which is not a part of his immediate
experience. It may be that the paucity of overt socio-sexual experience
among upper level males accounts both for their daytime eroticism and for
their nocturnal dreaming.
The record on frequencies of nocturnal emissions in different occupa-
tional classes is fully as striking as the record based on an educational
breakdown, and the two bodies of data lie in exactly the same direction
(Table 109, Figure 99). The lowest average frequencies of nocturnal
emissions, averaging not more than 2 or 3 per year, are to be found among
the males of occupational class 2, which is the group that includes the day
laborers, and the frequencies are only a bit higher for the semi-skilled
workmen of occupational class 3. The frequencies for occupational classes
6 and 7 (the college and graduate school groups), on the contrary, run
nearer once in 2 weeks at practically every age level and irrespective of the
nature of the parental occupational class from which these individuals
come. This means that there are 10 to 12 times as frequent nocturnal
emissions among males of the upper occupational classes as there are
among males of the lower classes.
Heterosexual Petting. Petting is pre-eminently an occupation of the
high school and college levels. For all social levels, it may begin in high
school or even before; but from 16 years of age, the males and the females
who are most often involved are the ones who go into high school or
ultimately into college (Table 84, Figure 100). About 92 per cent of the
males of the high school and college levels engage in at least some kind of
petting prior to marriage, and nearly as many (88%) of the grade school
group has such experience. These figures are not very far apart, but there
are greater differences in the limits to which the petting techniques go in
346
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
these several groups. In general, males of the grade school and high school
levels are more restricted in their petting behavior than males of the college
level.
Unfortunately, the data secured in this study do not allow a statistical
calculation for each degree of petting experience, but there are precise
data on the frequencies of petting which extends to the point of orgasm
(Table 84, Figure 100). In the pre-marital histories of college males, about
61 per cent reach orgasm by that means. It is only about 32 per cent of
the high school males who ever have such experience, and only about 16
per cent of the grade school group.
Petting to Climax, Single Males, by Educational Levels
age
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE population
accum.
INCID.
%
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%0f
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Adol
1
-1?
0-8
712
0.03 =1=0 01
0.00
1.06
13.3
0.24
0.06
13
9-12
606
0.05 =1=0.01
0.00
1.46
19.5
0.24
0.07 1
19
13+
2799
0.04 =1=0.01
0.00
1.54
13.8
0.31
0.09 1
14
16-20
0-8
720
0.05 =1=0.01
0.00
1.66
21.2
0.25
0.07
22
9-12
607
0.08 =1=0.01
0.00
2,37
34.3
0.24
0.07
34
13+
2861
0.14=1=0.01
0.00
5.26
45.8
0.31
0.09
46
21-25
0-8
361
0.04=1=0.01
0,00
1,23
15.5
0.25
0.07
9-12
263
0.08 =1=0.02
0.00
2.77
28.5
0.28
0.08
13+
1898
0.18 =1=0.01
0.01
7.50
51.9
0.35
0.10
58
26-30
0-8
159
0.06=1=0.03
0.00
1.96
19.5
0.28
0.07
9-12
117
0.05 =1=0.01
0.00
1,82
25.6
0.20
0.08
13+
487
0.13 =1=0.02
0.00
5.17
44.6
0,30
0,09
61
Table 84. Heterosexual petting to climax, and educational level
In regard to the frequencies of petting to climax, the differences between
educational levels are even more extreme. In the later teens, this source
provides nearly three times as frequent orgasm for the males who go to
college; and between 21 and 25, there is nearly 5 times as much orgasm
from this source for the college males as there is for the males who never
go beyond grade school. The lower level males derive something between
1 and 2 per cent of their total outlet from petting in their pre-marital
years. The college males derive between 5 and 8 per cent of their outlet
from that source.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
347
Analyses of the record by occupational classes confirm the statement
made above that petting is most characteristic of the upper social levels.
The differences by occupational class (Table 110, Figure 100) are not
notable in the early adolescent years, but they become greater between
16 and 20, at which age classes 6 and 7 pet to the point of climax twice as
often as classes 2 or 3. In the early twenties there is a 3 to 1 difference
between the two ends of the occupational scale, and the distinctions are
more or less true irrespective of the occupational classes of the parents.
Pre-marital Intercourse. Pre-marital intercourse may be had either with
companions or with prostitutes. In every social level coitus with girls who
are not prostitutes is more frequent. In younger age groups there is a 10
to 1 or still higher difference in favor of the non-prostitutes. In older age
groups, males of the lower educational level who are not yet married turn
to prostitutes more often than they did when they were younger; but non-
prostitutes still provide a larger part of the coitus. At the college level,
contacts with companions exceed the prostitute relations by some factor
which lies between 20 and 100 in every age group, including the older
groups.
Pre-marital intercourse, whatever its source, is more abundant in the
grade school and high school levels, and less common at the college level
(Tables 85-87, Figures 101-102). Even in the period between adolescence
and 1 5 the active incidence includes nearly half (48% and 43%) of the lower
educational groups, but only 10 per cent of the boys who will ultimately
go to college. In the later teens, 85 per cent of the grade school group and
75 per cent of the high school group is having pre-marital intercourse,
while the figure for the college group is still only 42 per cent. In later
years the differentials are not so great but, compared with the grade school
group, it is still only about two-thirds as many of the college males who
have such intercourse.
The accumulative incidence figures for pre-marital intercourse show
much the same differences. About 98 per cent of the grade school level has
experience before marriage^ while only 84 per cent of the high school level
and 67 per cent of the college level is involved (Table 136, Figure 145).
The frequency figures show still greater differences between educational
levels. In the age period between 16 and 20^ the grade school group has 7
times as much pre-marital coitus as the college group. There is not much
drop in the differential even in the older age groups. The mother who is
afraid to send her boy away to college for fear that he will be morally
corrupted there, is evidently unaware of the histories of the boys who stay
at home. Moreover, nearly half of the males who have intercourse while in
college had their first experience while they were still at home, before they
started to college (Table 136, Figure 145). Varying with the age period, the
348
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Non-marital Intercourse, by Educational Levels
AGE
EDUC.
CASES
total population
ACTIVE population
ACCUM.
incid.
%
GROUP
LEVEL
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
% of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Pre-marital Intercourse
Adol.
-15
0-8
630
1.08 =t=0.10
0.00
37.94
48.1
2.24 1
1.21
48
9-12
511
0.81 =i=0.10
0.00
25.45
43.2
1.88 1
0.84
43
13 +
2421
0.08 =±=0.01
0.00
3.73
9.8
0.83
0.29
10
16-20
0-8
635
1.74 =t=0.11
0.73
58.92
85.4
2.04
0.99
86
9-12
515
1.43 =i=0.12
0.44
42.17
75.5
1.89
0.89 1
76
13+
2475
0.25 + 0.02
0.00
11.26
41.8
0.60
0.17
44
21-25
0-8
312
2,00 =±=0.19
0.82
68.23
86.2
2.32 ^
1.06
90
9-12
217
1,25 =i=0.19
0.38
42.72
74.2
1.69 i
0.77
84
13+
1593
0.44 =±=0.03
0.02
19.41
53.9
0.81
0.30
64
26-30
0-8
137
1.82 =±=0.24
0.88
57.60
87.6
2.07
1.16
94
9-12
95
1.18 =±=0.22
0.41
38.72
71.6
1.64
0.86
85
13+
373
0.64 =±=0.08
0.05
21.40
56.3
1.14
0.48
68
Married Males: Extra-marital Intercourse
16-20
0-8
139
0.52
=fc
0.11
0.00
11.37
44.6
1.16
0.44
9-12
87
0.54
0.16
0.00
10.91
37.9
1.44
0.23
13+
46
0.12
db
0.07
0.00
2.91
19.6
0.61
0.10
21-25
0-8
284
0.53
sfc :
0,13
0.00
12.89
34.5
1.53
0.36
9-12
144
0.48
rfc
0.11
0.00
11.21
43.1
1.11
0.30
13+
323
0.05
=±=
0.02
0.00
1.57
14.2
0.38
0.11
26-30
0-8
244
0.26
=fc
0,05
0.00
7.66
35.7
0.72
0.25
9-12
113
0.36
=±=
0.11
0.00
9.75
46.9
0.77
0.19
13+
380
0.07
sir
0.02
0.00
2. 43 1
19.5
0.37
0.08
31-35
0-8
186
0.18
=±=
0.04
0.00
6.97
31.7
0.56
0.26
9-12
82
0.19
=fc
0.06
0.00
5.61
36.6
0.51
0.21
13 +
301
0.16
d =
0.04
0.00
5.92
24.6
0.63
0.25
36-40
0-8
143
0.18
dr
0.05
0.00
8.17
26.6
0.68
0.35
9-12
58
0.09
dr
0.03
0.00
3.45
32.8
0.27
0.19
13+
189
0.26
dr
0.11
0.00
10.38
29.6
0.89
0.21
41-45
0-8
100
0.12
dr
0.03
' 0.00
! 6.30
21.0
0.57
0.44
13 +
138
0.12
dr
0.03
0.00
6.39
23.9
0.52
0.21
46-50
0-8
70
0.11
rd
0.04
0.00
6.05
18.6
0.59
1 :
0.42 1
13+
81
0.25
dr
0.08
0.00
14.09
27.2
0.93
0.58
Table 85. Total pre-marital and extra-marital intercourse, as related to
educational level
Including the non-marital intercourse with companions and with prostitutes.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
349
college group derives 4 to 21 per cent of its pre-marital outlet from inter-
course; the high school group derives 26 to 54 per cent of its outlet from
that source; but the grade school group depends on coitus for 40 to 70 per
cent of its total pre-marital outlet.
The number of college-bred males who have some pre-marital inter-
course is high enough to surprise many persons, but the frequencies with
which they have it are very much lower than anywhere else in the popula-
tion. Between a third and a half of the males at college level have inter-
course only once or twice, or half a dozen times, or a matter of two or
three times a year for a few years before they marry. It is about 15 per cent
TOTAL PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
OCCUPATIONAL
CLASS
I
7.0x 7.7x
3
9-12
LOx
13 +
Figure 101. Total pre-marital intercourse, by educational level and occupational
class
For single males of the age group 16-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes,
of the college males who have pre-marital intercourse with weekly regu-
larity for any period of years before marriage. A good many college males
never have pre-marital intercourse with more than the one girl whom they
subsequently marry, and very few of them have pre-marital intercourse
with more than half a dozen girls or so. College males are very slow in
arriving at their first pre-marital intercourse (Figure 146), and a comparison
of the accumulative incidence curves (Table 136, Figure 146) indicates that,
on an average, they do not have their first experience until five or six years
after the lower level males start.
The pre-marital coital pictures for the grade school and high school
groups are much alike. They both differ from the college group in starting
4
5
6
I.Ox
7
350
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Non-marital Intercourse with Companions,
BY Educational Levels
AGE
GROUP
EPUC.
LEVEL
CASES
TOTAL population
ACTIVE population
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
INCID.
%
i
Single Males: Pre-marital Intercourse
Adol.
-15
0-8
712
1.04 0.09
0.00
35.00
48.5
2.15
1.20
9-12
606
0.81 ±0.09
0.00
24.93
43.4
1.88
0.76
13+
2799
0.08 ±0.01
0.00
2.74
9.3
0.82
0.27
16-^20
0-8
720
1.62±0.11
0.54
50.62
81.2
1.99
0.95
9-12
607
1.38 ±0.11
0.39
39.48
73.1
1.89
0.86
13+
2861
0.25 ±0.02
0.00
9.13
38.8
0.63
0.22
21-25
0-8
361
1.65 0.16
0.43
52.84
78.1
2.11
0.78
9-12
263
1.11 ±0.16
0.27
38.02
70.7
1.57
0.62
13+
1898
0.45 ±0.03
0.03
18.45
54.6
0.83
0.31
26-30
0-8
159
1.21 ±0.19
0.37
42.71
76.7
1.58
0.67
9-12
117
0.84 ±0.16
0.16
29.75
66.7
1.25
0.37
13 +
487
0.64 ±0.07
0.06
24.97
57.9
1.11
0.44
Married Males : Extra-marital Intercourse
16-20
0-8
146
0.47 ±0.10
0.00
10.91
41.8
1.14
0.47
42
9-12
94
0.46 ±0.13
0.00
9.43
35.1
1.30
0.34
35
13+
48
0.11 ±0.06
0.00
2.86
16.7
0.68
0.30
16
21-25
0-8
309
0.54 ±0.14
0.00
11.62
30.4
1.78
0.38
9-12
147
0.41 ±0.11
0.00
9.35
36.1
1.14
0.28
37
13+
357
0.05 ±0.01
0.00
1.86
14.3
0.37
0.10
16
26-30
0-8
278
0.24 ±0.05
0.00
6.38
28.8
0.82
0.32
9-12
124
0.28 ±0,10
0.00
7.61
38.7
0.71
0.15
39
13 +
448
0.08 ±0.02
0.00
2.72
20.8
0,38
0.09
23
31-35
0-^8
211
0.13 ±0.03
0.00
5.51
28.4
0.47
0.17
9-12
85
0.18 ±0.05
0.00
4.62
35.3
0.50
0.18
43
13+
370
0.15 ±0.03
0.00
5.51
26.8
0,56
0.22
31
36^0
0-8
165
0.14 ±0.04
0.00
7.24
23.6
0.60
0.27
9-12
62
0.11 ±0.05
0.00
1.76
32.3
0.35
0.12
44
13+
248
0.26 ±0.09
0.00
9.85
29.4
0.87
0.25
37
41-45
0-8
114
0.10 ±0.03
0.00
4.84
20.2
0.47
0.26
13 +
175
0.16 ±0.04
0.00
6.07
24.6
0.64
0.12
40
Table 86. Pre-marital and extra-marital intercourse with companions, as related
to educational level
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
351
their intercourse at a much earlier age — in many cases in pre-adolescence,
and in a large number of cases coincidentally with the onset of adolescence.
Within two or three years after the onset of adolescence nearly all of those
who will ever be involved have started heterosexual relations. Ultimately,
10 to 15 per cent more of the grade school group is involved than of the
high school group.
As analyzed by occupational classes, pre-marital intercourse is much
more frequently had by males of class 3, which is the group of semi-skilled
workmen (Table 111, Figure 101). Between adolescence and 15 years of age
there may be 15 times as much intercourse among males of class 3 as there
is among the boys who will ultimately go to college and whose occupa-
tional ratings will ultimately be in class 6 or 7. If the parental occupational
class is 5 (the lower white collar group), there is 122 times as much pre-
marital intercourse among the boys who regress to class 3 as there is among
those boys who will ultimately go into the professional group. Between 16
and 20, the differences between the extreme groups are somewhat less, but
the boys who will end up in occupational class 3 are still having intercourse
4 to 9 times as often as the boys who will move into occupational classes
6 and 7. Even during the twenties, when intercourse becomes more com-
mon at the upper levels, there is still 4 times as much of it among the males
of occupational class 3.
The males of occupational class 2 have high frequencies of pre-marital
intercourse at all age levels, but they do not rate as high as the males of
class 3. Just as was pointed out for the lower educational levels, this lower
rate of the lowest class is certainly due to the higher incidence of feeble-
mindedness, to the low physical state, and to the low social prestige of
many of the individuals in the group. It is quite possible that this lower
occupational class includes some groups who have very much higher rates
than the average for the whole class. They are probably the lower level
boys who became adolescent first (Chapter 9). Since class 2 as a group is
quite unrestrained sexually, any male in the group who does have any
amount of sexual drive would be likely to have relatively high frequencies
of pre-marital intercourse.
Intercourse with Prostitutes. Among those males who are not married by
age 25, pre-marital intercourse with prostitutes has been had by 74 per cent
of the grade school level, and by 54 per cent of the high school group, but
by not more than about 28 per cent of those who belong in the college
level (Table 87, Figure 102). These striking differences between educational
levels were as true in a past generation as they are in the present day
(Chapter 11). The active incidence figures in each of the five-year periods
indicate that lower level males start relations with prostitutes at a much
earlier age, and that three to four times as many of them are having inter-
course with prostitutes in each age period.
352
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Intercourse with Prostitutes, by Educational Levels
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
ACCUMUL.
INCID.
7o
LEVEI.
Mean
Frequency
%0f
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Pre-marital Intercourse
AdoL-15
0-8
712
0.029
= 1 =
0.007
0.97 '
8.7
0.33
0.10
8
9-12
606
0.014
=fc
0.004
0.44
7.9
0.18
0.07
8
13 +
2799
0.003
rt
0.001
0.11
2.3
0.13
0.07
2
16-20
0-8
720
0.20
zh
0.019
6.21
48.2
0.41
0.14
51
9-12
607
0.096
dz
0.011
2.75
41.4
0.23
0.08
44
13+
2861
0.022
0.002
0.80
19.3
0.11
0.06
20
21-25
0-8
361
0.39
=fc
0.045
12.55
60.7
0.64
0.33
74
9-12
263
0.14
db
0.02
4.66
43.7 :
0.31
0.10
54
13 +
1898
0.03
0.007
1.27
17.2
0.18
0.07
28
26-30
0-8
159
0.41
0.08
14.34
72.3
0.56
0.37
80
9-12
117
0.18
db
0.04
6.46
42.7
0.43
0.17
61
13+
487
0.08
=b
0.035
3.16 :
16.4
0.49
0.08
35
Married Males: Extra-marital Intercourse
16-20
0-8
158
0.029
db
0.012
0.61
16.5
0.18
0.07
17
9-12
87
0.074
=b
0.048
1.48
16.1
0.46
0.07
16
13 +
46
0.002
db
0.001
0.05
4.3
0.05
0.08
4
21-25
0-8
324
0.032
=b
0.009
0.80
15.1
0.21
0.08
18
9-12
164
0.061
d =
0.023
1.49
25.0
0.25
0.06
25
' 13 +
440
0.008
d =
0.003
0.23
5.2
0.16
0.07
6
26-30
0-8
292
0.040
db
0.011
1.16
17.1
0.24
0.08
20
9-12
135
0.053
=b
0.021
1.49
20.0
0.26
0.07
25
13 +
532
0.006
rfc
0.002
0.20
6.0
0.10
0.07
7
31-35
0-8
186
0.037
=b
0.012
1.46
15.6
0.24
0.09
20
9-12
82
0.033
db
0.017
0.99
17.1
0.19
0.08
25
13 +
301
0.011
=b
0.004
0.41
6.6
0.16
0.08
8
36-40
0-8
143
0.021
=fc
0.007
0.93
9.8
0.21
0.13
21
9-12
58
0.044
db
0.024
1.69
19.0
0.23
0.09
13 +
189
0.013
=b
0.005
0.53
8.5
0.16
0.08
12
41-45
0-8
100
0.028
d =
0.01
1.46
11.0
0.25
0.23
21
9-12
34
0.015
=b
0.009
0.70
14.7
0.10
0.08
13 +
138
0.006
= i =
0.003
0.32
5.1
0.12
0.08
12
Table 87. Intercourse with prostitutes, as related to educational level
Median frequencies for the total populations are, for the most part, 0.00.
SOQAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET 353
The percentage of the total sexual outlet which is derived by unmarried
males from intercourse with prostitutes steadily rises in all educational
levels with advancing age. Between 16 and 40 the percentage for males in
the grade school level rises from about 6 to 23 per cent. For the high school
level the figures at the same ages rise from less than 3 per cent to about 1 1
per cent; and for the college males they start at a fraction of 1 per cent and
rise no higher than 3 per cent in the later age periods. At 16 years of age,
the grade school males derive seven times as much of their outlet from
prostitutes as the college males do; and high school males get three or
four times as much of their outlet from prostitutes as college males get from
PRE- MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
EDUCATIONAL
OCCUPATIONAL
LEVEL
CLASS
2
9.1x
0-8
9H2
_ 3
4
5
I.Ox
13 +
6
1.0 K
7
Figure 102. Pre-marital intercourse with prostitutes, by educational level and
occupational class
For single males of the age group 16-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
that source. Among those who are still unmarried between 31 and 35, the
lower level individuals have 36 times as much contact with prostitutes as
the college males do.
Except for these lower level males of older ages, the actual frequencies
of contacts with prostitutes are relatively low. In spite of some opinion
that the college male depends primarily on paid contacts for his pre-marital
socio-sexual experience, this is the least significant part of all his sexual
activities (except for the incidental outlet that he derives from intercourse
with animals). The mean frequency of prostitute contacts for the entire
male population of all ages and of all educational and occupational groups
354
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
is 0.093 per week, or approximately 5 times per year. For the lower level
groups it may average as high as 0.50 per week (25 times per year) between
31 and 35 years of age. For the unmarried college males taken as a group,
it never averages higher than 0.08 per week (4 times per year) in any age
period.
Extra-marital intercourse with prostitutes is a still less important item,
at all social levels. In any age period, it never constitutes more than 1.5
per cent of the outlet of the grade school level, 1.7 per cent of the outlet of
the high school level, and 0.5 per cent of the outlet of the married males of
college level.
TOTAL EXTRA- MARITAL INTERCOURSE
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
OCCUPATIONAL
CLASS
!6.7x
2
10.6)c “
» > ^ P
0-8
. ■ ‘
9-12 '
I.Ox
13 +
6 :;''V
7 1
Figure 103. Extra-marital intercourse, by educational level and occupational
class
For married males of the age group 21-25- Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
A breakdown of the population by occupational classes shows that most
of the high frequencies of intercourse with prostitutes occur in occupa-
tional classes 2 and 3, which are the day labor and semi-skilled workmen
groups. The skilled workmen of class 4 show quite as high frequencies in
those few instances where we have sufficient material to make calculations.
Frequencies even in the lower occupational classes are not more than once
in 6 weeks in any particular age group; but the frequencies are rarely more
than once or twice in a year in occupational classes 5^ 6, and 7. These rates,
which represent averages for total populations, are, of course, much lower
than the rates for the active members of those populations; but if the
analyses are made on the active populations, the differences are still 2 to 1
in most cases, and in some Cases nearly 8 to 1, with the higher frequencies
SOCIAL LFVLL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
355
occurring in occupational classes 2 and 3. This breakdown by occupational
classes is a strict parallel to the breakdown by educational levels.
Marital Intercourse. At all social levels, practically one hundred per
cent of the married males have intercourse with their wives (Table 88, Fig-
ure 104). There are a few exceptions among the aged, among persons who
are married for only brief periods of time, among spouses between whom
there are insurmountable incompatibilities on questions of sex, in an
occasional case where one or both partners are completely homosexual, or
in a very few cases of persons who are religiously much restrained. There
are exceedingly few such cases of abstinence, and the number is too small
to show any trend by social levels.
There are social differences, however, in regard to the percentage of the
total sexual outlet which is derived from marital intercourse. In the age
period between 16 and 20, among males of the grade school level, only
about 80 per cent of the total sexual outlet comes from marital intercourse,
while extra-marital intercourse accounts for another 11 per cent of the
total outlet (Tables 86, 97, Figure 103). However, the portion of the outlet
coming from marital intercourse in this grade school group rises to approxi-
mately 90 per cent in the late forties and early fifties. Among males of the
high school group, marital intercourse in the early years accounts for 82
per cent, but rises to 91 per cent of the total outlet by the late forties. For
the college level, marital intercourse starts out as a higher portion of the
total outlet — nearly 85 per cent ; but it drops steadily through the successive
years until by the middle fifties it accounts for only 62 per cent of the out-
let of these males (Table 97, Figure 133). In comparison with males of the
college level, males of the grade school level, in their middle fifties, derive
26 per cent more of their total outlet from intercourse with their wives.
In the course of his marriage, the outlet of the married male of the college
level has increasingly included masturbation and nocturnal dreams and,
strikingly enough, extra-marital intercourse. On the other hand, the
lower level males never have much masturbation in their marital histories,
and the amount becomes less in the later years. During their teens and
early twenties, lower level males find a considerable outlet in extra-marital
intercourse, but with the advancing years they become increasingly faithful
to their wives. In short, lower level males take 35 or 40 years to arrive at
the marital ideals which the upper level begins with; or, to put it with
equal accuracy, upper level males take 35 to 40 years to arrive at the sexual
freedom which the lower level accepts in its teens. Some persons may
interpret the data to mean that the lower level starts out by trying promis-
cuity and, as a result of that trial, finally decides that strict monogamy is a
better policy; but it would be equally correct to say that the upper level
starts out by trying monogamy and ultimately decides that variety is worth
having. Of course, neither interpretation is quite correct, for the factors
356
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
Marital Intercourse,
BY Educational Levels
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE population
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
16-20
0-8
158
3.74 ± 0.35
2.51
79.92
100.0
3.74 =t 0.35
2.51
9-12
87
4 . 10 = 1 = 0.44
2.79
82.19
100.0
4 . 10 = t 0.44
2,79
13 +
46
3 . 47 = 1 = 0.51
2.58
85.40
100.0
3.47 = i = 0.51
2.58
21-25
0-8
324
3.28 = 1 = 0.20
2.22
81.03
99.4
3.30 = s = 0.20
2.23
9-12
164
3.35 = 1 = 0.29
2.53
81.56
100.0
3.35 = i = 0.29
2.53
13 +
440
3 . 07 = 1 = 0.13
2.50
83.93
99.5
3.08 = b 0.13
2.50
26-30
0-8
292
3 . 00 = 1 = 0.21
2.11
86.15
99.3
3 . 02 = 1 = 0.21
2.12
9-12
135
2.88 = 1 = 0.25
2.08
81.67
100.0
2.88 =b 0.25
2.08
13 +
532
2.61 = i = 0.10
2.07
82.76
99.2
2.63 = 1 = 0.10
2.08
31-35
0-8
186
2.26 =±= 0.18
1.72
88.07
100.0
2.26 = 1 = 0.18
1.72
9-12
82
2.83 = 1 = 0.34
2.11
85.18
100.0
2,83 ± 0.34
2.11
13 +
301
2 . 05 = 1 = 0.11
1.73
78.34
1
99.3
2.07 ± 0.11
1.74
36-40
0-8
143
1 . 95 = 1 = 0.16
1.56
88.09
99.3
1.97 ± 0.16
1.57
9-12
58
2.29 = 1 = 0.38
1.70
88.18
100.0
2.29 ± 0.38
1.70
13 +
189
1 . 89 = 1 = 0.14
1.56
74.41
98.9
1,91 ± 0.15
1.58
41-45
0-8
100
1 . 72 = 1 = 0,19
1.16
89.97
99.0
1.74 ± 0.19
1.19
13 +
138
1.48 = 1 = 0.10
1.25
76.38
99.3
1 . 50 ± 0.10
1.26
Table 88. Marital intercourse as related to educational level
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
EDUCATIONAL OCCUPATIONAL
LEVEL
CLASS
7
0-6
3
9-12
l.lx
5
1.0,
13 +
0
7
Figure 104. Marital intercourse, by educational level and occupational class
For married males of the age ^oup 21-25. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups. Note similarity of data based on educational levels and data
based on occupational classes.
358
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUT
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
Total Intercourse, Married Males, by Educational
Levels, Including Marital Intercourse and All
ExtrA'MArital Intercourse
total population
active population
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
% of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
16-20
0-8
140
4.18=b0.38
2.73
90.97
100.0
4.18 ±0.38
2.73
9-12
92
4.73 =i= 0.50
3.06
93.10
100 0
4.73 ±0.50
3.06
13+
47
3.63 =i=0.53
2.63
88.31
100.0
3.63 ±0.53
2.63
21-25
0-8
297
3.75 =i=0.25
2.41
93.17
100.0
3.75 ±0.25
2.41
9-12
143
3.90 0.37
2.63
92.44
100.0
3.90 ±0.37
2.63
13+
326
3.01 ±0.14
2.38
85.27
99.7
3.02 ± 0.14
2.39
26-30
0-8
265
3.23 ±0.23
2.27
93.94
99.6
3 24 ±0.23
2.28
9-12
117
3,32±0.33
2.32
90.80
100.0
3.32 ± 0.33
2.32
13+
410
2.56 ±0.11
2.04
84.42
99.8
2.57±0.11
2.04
31-35
0-8
201
2.67 ±0.20
1.87
95.04
100.0
2.67 ±0.20
1.87
9-12
83
2.96 ±0.36
2.10
90.79
100.0
2.96 ±0.36
2.10
13+
338
2.24±0.11
1.87
84.26
99.4
2.25 ±0.11
1.87
36-40
0-8
154
2.32±0.18
1.74
96.26
99.4
2.34±0.18
1.75
9-12
: 60
2.28 ±0.37
1.71
91.63
98.3
2.32 ±0.37
1.73
13+
; 228
2.14±0.15
1.72
84.79
99.1
2.16±0.15
1.73
41-45
0-8
109
2.09 ±0.22
1.46
96.27
100.0
2.09 ±0.22
1.46
9-12
33
2.07 ±0.43
1.70
92.93
100.0
2.07 ±0.43
1.70
13 +
164
1.71 ±0.11
1.39
82.77
99,4
1.72 ±0.11
1.40
46-50
0-8
74
1.99 ± 0.29
1.18
96.01
97,3
2.04 ±0.30
1.25
9-12
' 24
1.66 ±0.44
0.95
94.28
100.0
1.66 ± 0.44
0.95
13+
99
1.61 ±0.15
1.15
82.59
98.0
1.64±0.15
1.20
51-55
0-8
53
1.50 ± 0.30
0.85
95.26
96.2
1.56 ±0.31
0.88
13+
58
1.36±0.18
0.98
79.27
98.3
1.38 ±0.18
1.00
Table 89. Total intercourse among married males, in relation to educational level
The data cover the total outlet derived from marital intercourse plus the extra-marital
intercourse which is had with both companions and prostitutes.
SOCIAL LEVEL Am SEXUAL OUTLET
359
90 will show that the sexual outlet which is provided by homosexual rela-
tions amounts to three or four times the outlet which is provided by prosti-
tutes.
Among the males who ultimately go to college, homosexual relations
are less frequent, but they are still a material part of the total sexual pic-
ture. Between adolescence and 15 years of age, 21 per cent of the single
males of the college level is actively involved, at least in incidental experi-
ence to the point of orgasm. The active incidence figure drops to 17 per
cent by age 30. The number of college-bred males who ultimately have
experience is 40 per cent, if they are not married by age 30.
Frequencies for the college males are much lower than for any of the
other educational levels. They average only about once in ten weeks for the
population as a whole, and less than once in two weeks for the active
population. For those males who are not yet married by 30, the mean
frequencies rise to as much as 1.3 per week for the active portion of the
population. Only about 3 per cent of the outlet of the college males is de-
rived from the homosexual between adolescence and age 25, but in the
next age period they derive nearly 9 per cent of their outlet from such con-
tacts.
After marriage only 2 or 3 per cent of the college males engage in homo-
sexual relations, according to the histories that are now available. There
is no doubt, however, that this is one of the points on which there has been
considerable cover-up, and it is certain that a good many married males
who are having homosexual relations have deliberately avoided contrib-
uting their histories to this study. The 3 per cent incidence figure and the
low frequencies shown here are, consequently, absolute minima, and they
should be increased by some unknown quantity if they are to represent
the reality.
The data on the incidence, frequency, and total significance of homo-
sexual relations among grade school males are intermediate between the
data for the high school and the college males. In any single age period,
about one-fourth of all the males of grade school level have some homo-
sexual relations. This is true for all the years between adolescence and 30.
Ultimately, about 45 per cent of the grade school group is involved. Fre-
quencies of homosexual contacts are about once in four weeks for the
group taken as a whole, and nearly once a week for those who are actively
involved between the ages of 16 and 20. In marriage, the grade school
group continues its homosexual relations in 10 per cent of the cases, but
the incidence figures drop to about 3 per cent by age 45. The frequencies
of homosexual contacts for homosexually active married males of the
grade school level begin at about 1.4 per week and drop to a few times per
year, or once in a year or two, in the older groups.
360
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Homosexual Outlet, by Educational Levels
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
ACCUMUL.
LEVEL
Mean
Frequency
%of
Total
Outlet
Tncid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
INCID.
%
Single Males
Adol.-15
0-8
712
0.24
=1=
0.03
8 03
23.7
1.01
0.42
25
9-12
606
0 29
0.04
8.73
32 5 1
0.88
0.30
33
13+
2799 1
0.09
=t
0.01
3.14
21.5
0.41
0.09
22
16-20
0-8
720
0.22
=b
0.03
6.85
26.1
0.84
0.34
32
9-12
607
0.38
d=
0.05 i
10.81 i
40.9
0.93
0.31
48
13+
2861
0.07
db
0.01
2.43 1
16.0
0.41
0.08
27
21-25
0-8
361
0.25
=h
0.05
8.06
22.4
1.12
0.41
38
9-12 !
263
0.48
=b
0.08
16.31
37.6
1.26
0.68
53
13+
1898
0.09
=fc
0.01
3.72
9.5
0.96
0.30
33
26-30
0-8
159
0.40
d=
0.14
14.04
27.7
1.44
0.48
45
9-12
117
0.73
zh
0.18
25.95
46.2
1.58
0.73
55
13+
487
0.23
=t
0.04
8.82
17.2
i 1.31
0.66
40
Married Males
16-20
0-8
158
0.14 0.06
3,08
10.1
1.43
0.35
10
9-12
87
0.11 =fc 0.08
2.11
9.2
1.14
0.39
12
13 +
46
0.16
2.2
3
21-25
0-8
324
0.05 ± 0.02
1.33
9.3
0.58
0.09
9-12
164
0.04 0.02
1.05
13.4
0.32
0.10
13 +
440
0.02 =b 0.01
0.53
2.7
0.72
0.58
3
26-30
0-8
292
0.02 0.01
0.46
4.8
0.34
0.09
9-12
135
0.03 =1= 0.01
0.96
8.1
0.41
0.30
13+
532
0.03 =b 0.01
0.96
2.6
1.16
1.25
4
31-35
0-8
186
0.14
4.3
0.08
0.06
9-12
82
0.05 ± 0.02
1.38
6.1
0.75
0.70
13 +
301
0.02 0.01
0.75
3.0
0.66
0.10
4
36-40
0-8
143
0.30
2.8
0.24
0.08
9-12
58
0.02 0.01
0.73
3.4
0.55
0.75
13+
189
0.89
2.8
0.10
41-45
0-8
100
0.08
3.0
0.05
0.07
13+
138
1.64
2.2
1.47
0.10
Table 90. Homosexual outlet, as related to educational level
Median frequencies for the total populations are uniformly 0.00.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
361
A breakdown of the homosexual data for the several occupational
classes does not show marked or consistent differences between occupa-
tional classes 2, 3, and 5 (Table 114, Figure 105). On most items of sexual
activity class 5 is closer to classes 6 and 7, but in regard to the incidences
and frequencies of the homosexual, it is closer to the semi-skilled and
skilled labor groups. The active incidence figures for homosexual contacts
among the lower occupational classes may be as high as 35 or 40 per cent
in different groups at particular age periods, but they never go higher than
14 per cent for the males of class 7, except during the period of earliest
adolescence for that portion of class 7 which originates from parental
class 5.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
OCCUPATIONAL
CLASS
2
I.Ox
7
IJ.Ox
Figure 105. Homosexual outlet, by educational level and occupational class
For single males of the age group 16-20. Relative lengths of bars compare mean fre-
quencies for the groups.
The frequencies of homosexual activity among the males of class 6 are
a bit lower than the frequencies in the lower occupational levels. Class 7
is the most distinct. Its frequencies are very much below those of every
other occupational class. In practically every age group, and irrespective
of the parental occupational class from which these class 7 males may have
come, the frequencies average only about one-fourth or one-fifth of those
for the lower occupational classes. If the calculations are made only for
those males who do become actively involved, the mean frequencies for
class 7 are still only half as high as the mean frequencies for the active
males of classes 3 and 5. Males of occupational class 6 are intermediate
between the males of the lower levels and those of class 7.
The situation portrayed by frequencies in the homosexual is more or
less paralleled by the calculations showing the percent of the total sexual
362
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
outlet which is derived from this source in each of the occupational
classes. An average of 10 per cent or more of the total sexual outlet may be
derived from the homosexual by males of classes 2 and 5, while among
males of class 7 the average of the total outlet which is so derived is never
more than 2 per cent. The males of class 6 are rather intermediate in this
regard, or more nearly approach the males of class 5 in deriving upward of
10 per cent (in one group slightly more than 10 per cent) of their orgasms
in contacts with other males.
Animal Intercourse. Intercourse with animals other than the human is
almost entirely confined to males raised in rural areas. Only an occa-
AGE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
CASES
Animal Contacts, Single Males, by Educational Level
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
ACCUMUL.
INCID.
RURAL
MALES
ONLY
%
Mean
Frequency
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Adol.-15
0-8
712
0.026 =1=0.007
0.86
5.8
0.45
0.14
10
9-12
606
0.030 =1=0,009
0.91
5.9
0.50
0.16
9
13+
2799
0.020=1=0.005
0.71
5.3
0.37
0.07
23
16-20
0-8
720
0.022 =1=0.007
0.68
4.0
0.54
0.17
14
9-12
607
0.038 =1= 0.012
1.08
4.6
0.82
0.24
17
13+
2861
0.010=1=0.004
0.36
2.5
0.39
0.09
25
21-25
0-8
361
0.005 =1= 0.003
0.15
1.1
0.43
0.33
14
9-12
263
0.014 =b 0.010
0.47
2.7
0.51
0.10
20
13+
1898
0.002 =1= 0.001
0.09
0.7
0.32
0.10
26
Table 91. Animal contacts, as related to educational level
The active population is almost wholly rural and the active frequencies are essentially
those for that portion of the rural population which has animal contacts. Median fre-
quencies for the total populations are uniformly 0.00.
sional contact is had by city boys, unless they visit farms in vacation
periods. Consequently, averages of animal contacts for the total American
population are so low that they cannot be calculated with an accuracy
which means anything in terms of the actualities of human behavior. For
the rural males who are actively involved in such contacts, animal inter-
course is more significant (Table 91).
The accumulative incidence figures for animal intercourse go to about
14 per cent for the farm boys who do not go beyond grade school, to about
20 per cent for the group which goes into high school but not beyond, and
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
363
to 26 per cent for the males who will ultimately go to college. The boys of
college level who are ever involved in animal intercourse number nearly
twice as many, relatively, as the boys who never go beyond grade school.
On the other hand, the boys of lower educational levels who are actually
involved are the ones who have the highest frequencies in animal contacts
(Table 91). For them the frequencies average close to once in two weeks,
plus or minus. The frequencies for the boys of the college level who are
actually having any animal contacts average nearer once in three weeks.
ATTITUDES ON SEXUAL TECHNIQUES
In addition to differences in frequencies and sources of sexual outlet,
social levels differ in their attitudes on other matters of sex. Their sources
of erotic interest, attitudes toward nudity, and techniques utilized in
coitus are the items on which we have sufficient data to warrant some
treatment here.
Sources of Erotic Arousal. The upper level male is aroused by a con-
siderable variety of sexual stimuli. He has a minimum of pre-marital or
extra-marital intercourse (Tables 96, 97). The lower level male, on the
other hand, is less often aroused by anything except physical contact in
coitus; he has an abundance of pre-marital intercourse, and a considerable
amount of extra-marital intercourse in the early years of his marriage.
How much of this difference is simply the product of psychologic factors
and how much represents a community pattern which can be properly
identified as the mores, it is difficult to say. The very fact that upper level
males fail to get what they want in socio-sexual relations would provide a
psychologic explanation of their high degree of erotic responsiveness to
stimuli which fall short of actual coitus. The fact that the lower level male
comes nearer having as much coitus as he wants (Table 92) would make
him less susceptible to any stimulus except actual coitus.
The higher degree of eroticism in the upper level male may also be con-
sequent on his greater capacity to visualize situations which are not imme-
diately at hand. In consequence, he is affected by thinking about females,
and/or by seeing females or the homosexual partner, by burlesque shows,
obscene stories, love stories in good literature, love stories in moving
pictures, animals in coitus, and sado-masochistic literature. Upper level
males are the ones who most often read erotic literature, and the ones who
most often find erotic stimulation in pictures and other objects. None of
these are significant sources of stimulation for most lower level males, who
may look on such a thing as the use of pictures or literature to augment
masturbatory fantasies as the strangest sort of perversion,
While these group differences may be primarily psychologic in origin,
there is clearly an element of tradition involved, Each community more or
less accepts the idea that there will be or will not be erotic arousal under
364
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
particular sorts of circumstances. The college male who continuously talks
about girls does so with a certain consciousness that the other persons in
his group are also going to be aroused by such conversation, and that they
accept such arousal as natural and desirable. The homosexual male, and
the heterosexual male who does not approve of such deliberately induced
Attitudes on Pre-marital Intercourse
AT Three Educational Levels
restraints
ON
ESrrERCOURSE
EDUC.
LEVEL
all
ages
ADOL.-25
26^5
46+
Cases
%
Cases
%
Cases
%
Cases
%
Moral objections
0-8
814
20.8
317
18.9
338
16.2
159
33.9
9-12
650
25.5
369
22.8
232
28.5
13 +
3161
61.4
2016
62.5
969
56.6
176
76.2
Fear of public
0-8
775
13.5
300
14.4
322
11.5
153
16.3
opinion
9-12
615
14.3
343
12.0
224
17.0
, 13 +
2847
22.8
1756
21.5
918
24.1
173
28,9
Fear of pregnancy
0-8
814
20.4
318
19.2
336
20.6
160
22.5
9-12
645
17.5
364
18.6
232
15.5
13-H ,
3136
27.6
1995
28.0
964
27.5
177
23,7
Fear of venereal
0-8
811
28.6
317
27.1
335
29.0
159
30.8
disease
9-12
641
25.3
361
23.8
231
26.8
13 +
3143
24,8
2001
25.1
965
23.9
177
25.4
Lack opportunity
0-8
785
34.6
1
312
36.9
323
33.8
150
32.0
9-12
627
38.0
358
37.5
225
39.6
I
13 +
3104
51.6
1980
51.4
950
55.5
174
33.4
Lack of interest in
0-8
327
41.9
155
35.5
117
45.3
55
52.7
having more
9-12
279
44.5
153
45.1
111
45.9
13 +
1831
18.8
1041
18.7
688
19.2
102
17.6
Male desires to
0-8
595
43.3
215
40.9
267
38.5
113
59.3
many a virgin
9-12
523
39.2
309
40.8
176
32.4
13 +
2972
46.5
1943
50.7
880
36.2
149
41.6
Table 92. Attitudes on pre-marital intercourse, at three educational levels
eroticism, considers this public display of elation over females as a group
activity which is more or less artificially encouraged. The lower level male
who talks about girls quite as frequently, or even more so, is less often
aroused by such talk and may be inclined to consider a listener who is so
aroused as somewhat aberrant. There is an element of custom involved in
these styles of erotic response.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
365
Nudity. In many cultures, the world around, people have been much
exercised by questions of propriety in the public exposure of portions or the
whole of the nude body. There are few matters on which customs are more
specific, and few items of sexual behavior which bring more intense reac-
tions when the custom is transgressed. These customs vary tremendously
between cultures and nations, and even between the individual communities
in particular countries. The inhabitant of the Central American tropics has
one custom, the Indian who comes down from his mountain home to trade
in the lowland has totally different customs. There is neither rhyme nor
reason to the custom — there is nothing but tradition to explain it. The
mountain Indian of the warmer country of Southern Mexico is thoroughly
clothed, the mountain Indian of the coldest part of Northern Mexico is
more completely nude than the natives of the hottest Mexican tropics. But
there are probably no groups in the world who are free of taboos of some
sort on this point. The history of the origin of clothing is more often one of
taboos on nudity than a story of the utility of body coverings.
The English are more or less justly reputed to be the most completely
clothed people in the world, and Americans have been slow in breaking
away from the English tradition. The American visitor to foreign lands is
often amazed at the exposure which is allowed in some other cultures, and
he criticizes it on moral grounds. The nudity of the French burlesque is
ascribed to the “low morality” of Frenchmen as a group; and although an
approach is made to the same sort of display in American burlesque, the
institution here does not achieve the same free acceptance of complete
nudity which the original French has. The German nudist movement is
assumed by the average American to be immoral in intent, and its counter-
part in this country survives only after considerable public discussion and
continual wrangling in court over the obscenity of such activity. Although
Anglo-American law has tried for six or seven centuries to define indecent
exposure, there is no legal agreement on the decency or indecency of nude
art, nor on the rights of art schools, photographers, magazines, and books
to portray the nude human form. Public sentiment, backed by sporadic
police action, has dictated the styles of bathing suits, from the gay nineties
down to the present. It is only within the last decade or two that the
male’s right to appear in swimming trunks without tops has been estab-
lished for public swimming beaches and pools.
More definite limits may be set on nudity than on more overtly sexual
activities. The kissing which is commonplace in American films is con-
sidered most immoral in some of the foreign countries to which the films
are distributed. A completely nude art production may be shown in a
Latin American moving picture theatre to an audience which takes the
film complacently, for its artistic value, although it will hiss the next
picture off the screen because it contains a Hollywood kissing scene.
366
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The acceptance of nudity may even vary with the hour and the place of
the exposure. The costume which is accepted on the swimming beach is
strictly forbidden in most other places i In the middle of the day, the female
may safely expose her arms in public, although she is then limited in regard
to the exposure of her back. At the formal affair in the evening, she may
expose the whole of her back, but she is then most proper if she covers
her arms with long gloves. In a Latin American tropic town, inside a public
building, there may be considerable objection when one rolls his shirt
sleeves to the elbow, even on the hottest summer day; but out of doors
both men and women may go stripped to the waist through the streets of
the town, and all of them may come together for nude bathing in the
nearby stream. It would require a considerable treatise to portray the reac^
tions of the peoples of the world to nudity, and a larger treatise to explain
the origins of those customs.
Most amazing of all, customs in regard to nudity may vary between the
social levels of a single community. In our American culture, there is a
greater acceptance of nudity at upper social levels, and greater restraint at
lower social levels. Compared with previous generations, there is a more
general acceptance of nudity in the upper social level today (Table 95).
There is an increasing amount of nudity within the family circle in this
upper level. There is rather free exposure in the home for both sexes,
including the parents and the children of all ages, at times of dressing and
at times of bathing. Still more significant, there is an increasing habit
among upper level persons of sleeping in partial or complete nudity (Table
95). This is probably more common among males, though there is a con-
siderable number of upper level females who also sleep nude. Among the
males of the college level, nearly half (41%) frequently sleep nude, about
one-third (34%) of the high school males do so, but only one-sixth (16%)
of the males of the grade school level sleep that way.
Finally, the upper level considers nudity almost an essential concomitant
of intercourse. About 90 per cent of the persons at this level regularly
have coitus nude (Table 95). The upper level finds it diflBcult to comprehend
that anyone should regularly and as a matter of preference have intercourse
while clothed. This group uses clothing only under unusual circumstances,
or when variety and experimentation are the desired objectives in the inter-
course. On the other hand, nude coitus is regularly had by only 66 per cent
of those who never go beyond high school, and by 43 per cent of those
who never go beyond grade school.
This intercourse with clothing is not a product of the inconveniences of
the lower level home, nor is it dependent upon the diflBculties of securing
privacy in a small home, as too many sociologists have gratuitously
assumed. It is primarily the product of the lower level’s conviction that
nudity is obscene. It is obscene in the presence of strangers, and it is even
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
367
obscene in the presence of one’s spouse. Some of the older men and women
in this group take pride in the fact that they have never seen their own
spouses nude.
Many persons at this level strictly avoid nudity while dressing or undress-
ing. They acquire a considerable knack of removing daytime clothing and
of putting on night clothing, without ever exposing any part of the body.
This is less often true of the younger generation which has been exposed to
the mixture of social levels encountered in the CCC camps, the Y.M.C.A.,
and the Army and the Navy. Exposure of the upper half of the male body
on swimming beaches started as an upper level custom, but the democracy
of the public beach has fostered a much wider acceptance of nudity among
lower social levels today. Compare the three generations of the educational
level 0-8 in Table 95. Younger males, even of the laboring groups, are often
seen at work, out of doors, in public view, while stripped to the waist; but
older males of the same social level still keep their arms covered to the
wrist, even on the hottest of days and while engaged in the most uncomfort-
able of jobs. These inroads on the traditions against nudity are reflected
in the sleeping and coital customs of younger persons of these lower levels,
but the older members of these groups still observe the traditions. There
are some cases of lower level males who have been highly promiscuous, who
have had intercourse with several hundred females, and who emphasize
the fact that they have never turned down an opportunity to have inter-
course except “on one occasion when the girl started to remove her clothing
before coitus. She was too indecent to have intercourse with!”
Manual Manipulation. At upper social levels there may be considerable
manual petting between partners, particularly on the part of the male who
has been persuaded by the general talk among his companions, and by the
codification of those opinions in the marriage manuals, that the female
needs extended sensory stimulation if she is to be brought to simul-
taneous orgasm in coitus. Upper level petting involves the manual stimu-
lation of all parts of the female body.
Manual manipulation of the female breast occurs regularly in 96 per cent
of the histories of the married males of the upper level, and manual manipu-
lation of the female genitalia is regularly found in about 90 per cent of the
histories (Table 93). The upper level believes that this petting is necessary
for successful coital adjustment; but preliminary calculations indicate that
the frequency of orgasm is higher among lower level females than it is
among upper level females, even though the lower level coitus involves a
minimum of specific physical stimulation (Table 93).
The manual manipulation of the female breast occurs in only 79 per cent
of the married male histories at lower levels, and the manipulation of the
female genitalia occurs in only 75 per cent of the cases (Table 93). Even
13
Utilization of Petting Techniques
AT Three Educational Levels
TECHNIQUE
EDUC.
LEVEL
ALL
AGES
ADOL.-25
26-45
46+
Cases
V
/o
Cases
%
Cases
%
Cases
o/
/o
Kissing, lip. Mar-
0-8
457
88.4
73
95.9
252
90.1
132
81.1
ital. Frequent
9-12
267
93.2
80
98.7
149
94.0
13 +
1071
97.7
225
99.6
689
97.5
157
95.5
Kissing, deep.
0-8
455
40.5
73
54.8
252
42.4
130
28.5
Marital. Fre-
9-12
267
56.2
80
60.0
149
58.4
quent
13 +
1069
77.3
225
86.7
687
78.3
157
59.2
Breast, manual.
0-8
458
78.6
74
85.1
252
81.4
132
69.7
Marital. Fre-
9-12
266
90.6
80
92.5
148
93.9
quent
13 +
1071
96.3
225
99.0
689
96.5
157
91.1
Breast, oral. Mar-
0-8
458
33.2
74
32.4
252
36,1
132
28.0
ital. Frequent
9-12
266
57.5
80
57.5
148
62.9
13 +
1071
81.6
225
92.5
689
81.1
157
67.5
Female genitalia,
0-8
235
79.1
151
82.2
63
76.2
manual. Pre-m.
9-12
224
85.3
173
87.3
Frequent
13+
566
91.0
439
91.8
118
90.7
Female genitalia,
0-8
457
74.8
74
74.3
252
78.2
131
68.7
manual. Mar-
9-12
266
79.7
80
77.4
148
85.1
ital. Frequent
13 +
1071
89.6
225
94.6
689
89.2
157
83.4
Male genitalia,
0-8
235
66.4
151
65.6
63
69.9
manual. Pre-m.
9-12
224
71.0
173
74.0
Frequent
13+
566
75.1
439
74.7
118
78.0
Male genitalia,
0-8
457
57.1
74
54.1
252
58.0
131
57.3
manual. Mar-
9-12
266
60.9
80
65.0
148
63.5
ital. Frequent
13 +
1069
75.3
225
84.0
687
' 74.5
157
66.2
Female genitalia,
0-8
235
8.5
151
9.3
63
7.9
oral. Pre-mar-
9-12
224
10.3
173
11.6
i
ital. Ever
13 +
564
18.4
438
15.5
117
25.6
Female genitalia.
0-8*
458
4.1
74
5.4
252
4.0
132
3.8
oral. Marital.
9-12
267
15.4
80
13,7
149
16.8
Ever
13+
1070
45.3
225
35.1
688
49.6
157
41.4
Male genitalia,
0-8
235
22.1
151
21.8
63
25.4
oral. Pre-mar-
9-12
224
29.9
173
27.7
45
37.8
ital. Ever
13+
564
38.6
438
34.5
117
51.3
Male genitalia,
0-8
458
6.6
74
9.5
252
6.8
132
4.6
oral. Marital.
9-12
267
15.3
80
12.5
149
18.1
Ever
13 +
1070
42.7
225
38.7
i 688
45.5
157
36.3
Table 93. Utilization of pre-coital petting techniques at three educational levels,
in three generations
Ages shown represent ages of subjects at time of reporting.
368
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
369
when there is such stimulation, it is usually restricted in its extent
and in its duration. The lower level female agrees to manipulate
the male genitalia in only 57 per cent of the cases. The record is, therefore,
one of more extended pre-coital play at the upper levels, and of a mini-
mum of play at the lower levels. Many persons at the lower level consider
that intromission is the essential activity and the only justifiable activity
in a “normal” sexual relation.
Oral Eroticism. Many persons in the upper levels consider a certain
amount of oral eroticism as natural, desirable, and a fundamental part of
love making. Simple lip kissing is so commonly accepted that it has a
minimum of erotic significance at this level. The college male may expect
to kiss his date the first time they go out together. Most college students
understand there will be good night kisses as soon as their dating becomes
regular. Many a college male will have kissed dozens of girls, although he
has had intercourse with none of them. On the other hand, the lower level
male is likely to have had intercourse with hundreds of girls, but he may
have kissed few of them. What kissing he has done has involved simple
lip contacts, for he is likely to have a considerable distaste for the deep kiss
which is fairly common in upper level histories.
Deep kissing is utilized as a prime source of erotic arousal by many
persons in the better educated and top social levels. A deep kiss may
involve considerable tongue contacts, deep lip contacts, and extended
explorations of the interior of the partner’s mouth. Such behavior is, as
noted before, a regular concomitant of coital activity among many of the
vertebrates, and particularly among the mammals (Beach 1947, and origi-
nal observations which we have). In the human mammal, at the upper
level, oral eroticism may still be considered a bit sophisticated, but deep
kissing is in the experience of 87 per cent of the group (Table 93). Its
sanitary implications seem no obstacle to its acceptance. This group
accepts mouth contacts in its erotic play, although it objects to the use of
a common drinking glass.
On the other hand, the lower level male considers such oral contacts to
be dirty, filthy, and a source of disease, although he may drink from a
common cup which hangs in the water pail, and he may utilize common
utensils in eating and drinking. Obviously, the arguments, at both levels,
have nothing to do with the real issues. They are rationalizations of mores
which place taboos upon mouth contacts for reasons which only the student
of custom can explain. Once again, it is the upper level which first reverted,
through a considerable sophistication, to behavior which is biologically
natural and basic.
Mouth-breast contact does occur at aU social levels, but it is most
elaborately developed again in the upper social level (Table 93). Almost
370
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Oral Contacts: Accumulative Incidence
BY
Percents of Total Population
HOMO-
heterosexual
sexual
>
O
>
AGE
CASES
o ^
c/3
C3
o
GROUP
1
^ i
(L
1
Si
o
<
!/)
a
CL
U
s *
2
0)
O
o
<
a
s
CL
s
'cS
'u
oi
“si
3
'C
C3
<
13
13
s
^ !
13
s
13
1
o
<
O
>
*S5
c/3
CCS
CL
u
'G
‘G
‘G
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s
o
(D
a
a
c3
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<
W
&
&
S
s
S
2
All Educational Levels : U. S. Correction
16-20
1208
46.2
8.2
22.8
23.7
7.7
22.8
12.0
38.3
21-25
1502
49.1
8 41
27.2
26.7
6.9
26.5
16.7
12,1
12.6
14.1
36.3
26-30
653
55.9
12.3
40.0
22.3;
15.8
21.3
13.5
36.6
31-35
370
55.2
15,3
40.6
19.2
15.8
13.8
15.4
32.0
36-40
317
58.9
16.7
46.7
i
1
i
11.5
29.8
Educational Level 0-8
16-20
176
44.9
8.0
22.2
21.0
8.0
21.0
15.2
38.2
21-25
123
41.5
4.9
22.8
21.0
6.5
21.0
8 2
3.3
6.6
10.6
30.9
26-30
109
45.0
5.5
37.6
9.3
2.7
9.3
4.6
33.0
31-35
74
40.5
6.8
29.7
10.5
7.0
7.0
10.8
27.0
36-40
88
44.8
9.1
35.2
10.8
6.2
9.2!
5.7
24.1
41-45
67
34.3
1.5
28.8
0.0
0.0
5.9
13.2
46-55
84
22.6
1.2
16.7
3.0
4.5
6.0
14.5
564-
77
23.1
5.2
18.2
4.5
4.5
6.3
15.2
Educational Level 9-12
16-20
228
54.8!
9.6
26.8
28.9
8.8
27.5
12.4
46.5
21-25
142
57.0
9.1
30.1
31.0
6.9
31.0
14.3
10.7
8.9
18.0
45.8
26-30
104
64.4
10.6
40.4
21.7
15.0
21.7
21.4
45.7
31-35
62
66.1
14.8
47.5
21.3
42.6
36-40
49
77.6
16.3
61.2
20.4
42.9
Educational Level 13-f
16-20
802
15.8
3.2
8.8
9.
,5
3.0
8.7
3,
.6
6.6
21-25
1237
34.9
13.5
25.7
22.
,1
8.0
20.9
44.1
36.2
39.9
6.
.5
11.5
26-30
440
57.0
34.8
44.8
29.
1
12.6
28.1
56.9
51.5
50.6
11,
.4
17.1
31-35
234
70.5
42.7
55.1
48.7
43.5
36.8
13.
,8
18.9
36-40
180
71.7
49.4
58.9
54.2
50.3
47.7
13,
.7
21.3
41-45
118
74.6
51.7
55.1
62.1
55.3
46.6
11.
.9
17.8
46-55
122
63.9
43.4
50.8
47.2
42.5
36.8
9.
.8
10.7
56+
55
154.5
41,8
40.0
43.1
39.2
35.3
9,
.1
12.7
Table 94. Oral techniques at three educational levels
Showing accumulative incidences. Data not calculated as described for accumulative
incidence curves in Chapter 3, but derived from experience of each subject up to time of
reporting. Lower incidences in some older age groups may be due to small size of samples
and to possible cover-up, but most probably to the fact that incidences were actually a
bit lower in that generation.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
371
invariably it is a matter of the male manipulating the female breast with
his mouth. It is interesting that females rarely attempt to manipulate male
breasts (Chapter 18).
The upper level male considers it natural that the female breast should
interest him, and that he should want to manipulate it, both by hand and
by mouth. The biologic origin of this interest is, however, open to question,
because many lower level males do not find the female breast similarly
interesting and have little inchnation to manipulate it, either by hand or by
mouth. Many lower level males rate such mouth-breast contacts as per-
versions, and some of them dismiss the idea with considerable disgust, as
something that only a baby does when nursing from the mother’s breast.
Considering these opposite reactions to a single type of situation, it must
be apparent that a considerable psychic element is involved in the develop-
ment of individual patterns on this point. The concentration of these
patterns in whole social levels indicates that the mores, the long-time cus-
toms of the groups, are the fundamental factors in the picture.
Mouth-genital contacts of some sort, with the subject as either the
active or the passive member in the relationship, occur at some time in the
histories of nearly 60 per cent of all males (Table 94). As noted elsewhere
(Chapter 18), these are quite common in the sexual activity of many of the
other mammals, particularly among the other anthropoids (Beach 1947).
There have been some other human cultures which have accepted such
contacts as usual behavior, and even as a part of their religious service.
The suggestion that such techniques in our present-day society are a recent
development among sophisticated and sexually exhausted individuals is
curiously contrary to the specific record, for the figures for at least three
generations do not show significant changes in this respect (Table 93).
Mouth-genital contacts (of any kind) occur much more often at high
school and college levels (Table 94), less often in the grade school group.
In the histories of the college group, about 72 per cent of the males have
at least experimented with such contacts, and about 65 per cent of the
males who have gone into high school but not beyond. Among those males
who have never gone beyond eighth grade in school the accumulative
incidence figure is only 40 per cent.
The percentages for males who have made mouth contacts with female
genitalia prior to marriage are 9, 10, and 18 for grade school, high school,
and college levels, respectively (Table 93). In marriage, such contacts are
in 4, 15, and 45 per cent of the histories, for the three groups. Before mar-
riage, the percentages of males with histories which included mouth stimu-
lation of the male genitalia during heterosexual relations were 22, 30, and
39, for the three educational levels. In marriage, such relations have been
had in 7, 15, and 43 per cent of the cases, for the three levels, respectively.
372
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HTOIAN MALE
POSITIONS IN
MARITAL COITUS
EDUC.
LEVEL
Coital Techniques and Nudity
AT Three Educational Levels
ALL ,
AGES
ADOL.-25
26-45
46+
Cases
o/
/o
Cases
%
Cases
%
Cases
0/
/o
Female above;
0-8
457
17.1
74
1 24.3
251
20.3
132
6.8
frequent
9-12
265
28.3
80
31.2
148
20.4
13+
1071
34.6
226
42.9
688
34.4
157
23.6
Side; frequent
0-8
457
16.4
74
32.4
251
16.4
132
7.6
9-12
263
22.8
80
20.0
147
27.2
13+
1066
26.0
225
22.7
684
27.2
157
25.5
Rear; frequent
0-8
456
7.6
74
12.2
250
8.4
132
3.8
9-12
265
11.3
80
7.5
148
14.9
13+
1068
10.6
225
9.8
686
11.1
157
9.6
Sitting; frequent
0-8
457
7.7
74
17.6
251
7.2
132
3.0
9-12
265
9.4
80
6.2
148
11.5
13+
1065
6.1
224
6.7
684
6.1
157
5.0
l
Standing; frequent
0-8
455
7.5
74
17.5
249
7.2
132
2.3
9-12
263
9.1
80
7.5
146
11.0
13+
1062 j
3.6
224
2.6
683
3.6
155
* 4.5
NUDITY
In sleep ; frequent
0-8
724
16.1
271
19.6
296
14.5
157
13.4
9-12
486
34.1
256
34.8
187
34.2 1
13 +
2407
41.1
1412
34.9
832
52.2 j
163
37.4
In coitus. Pre-
0-8
436
31.7
198
32.8
181
32.6
57
24.5
marital. Fre-
9-12
366
45.1
217
52.1
126
37.3
quent
894
54.9
456
52.2
407
58.7
In coitus. Marital.
0-8
383
42.8
54
63.0
208
43.3
121
33.1
Frequent
9-12
205
66.3
55
81.8
118
67.0
13 +
924
89.2
184
92.4
598
90.8
142
78.1
Table 95. Coital techniques and nudity at three educational levels, in three
generations
The most frequently used coital position is the one in which the male is above. It is
not shown in the table because its use does not significantly vary between educational
levels. Ages shown represent ages of subjects at time of reporting. Consequently it may
be expected that the incidence data for the youngest generation, although they are already
higher than any other on most items, will go still higher before this group reaches the
age of the oldest generation shown in the table.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
373
Most of the mouth-genital contacts are had between spouses. Prostitutes
provide a portion of such contacts. However, it should be noted that most
prostitutes are from the lower social levels, and consequently that few of
them engage freely in oral activities. Even among those who make such
contacts professionally, few of them would accept the same type of rela-
tionship with their boy friends. In her private life, even the prostitute does
not depart from the mores of her social level, although she may do any-
thing for pay.
Mouth-genital contacts in homosexual relations occur most commonly
among the males of the high school level, and not quite so often in the
males of the college and grade school groups (Table 94). Of the entire male
population (U. S. Corrections), about 30 per cent has been brought to
climax at least once in such relations with other males, and 14 per cent
has brought other males to climax by the same techniques. The total of
those who have had any type of oral relation in the homosexual is
something over 30 per cent.
Positions in Intercourse. Universally, at all social levels in our Anglo-
American culture, the opinion is held that there is one coital position which
is biologically natural, and that all others are man-devised variants which
become perversions when regularly engaged in. However, the one position
which might be defended as natural because it is usual throughout the
Class Mammalia, is not the one commonly used in our culture. The usual
mammalian position involves, of course, rear entrance, with the female
more or less prone, face down, with her legs flexed under her body, while
the male is above or to the rear. Among the anthropoids this mammalian
position is still the most common, but some variety of positions also occurs
(Bingham 1928, Yerkes and Elder 1936, Beach 1947, Nowlis ms.).
Most persons will be surprised to learn that positions in intercourse are
as much a product of human cultures as languages and clothing, and that
the common English-American position is rare in some other cultures.
Among the several thousand portrayals of human coitus in the art left by
ancient civilizations, there is hardly a single portrayal of the English-
American position. It will be recalled that Malinowski (1929) records the
nearly universal use of a totally different position among the Trobrianders
in the Southwestern Pacific; and that he notes that caricatures of the
English- Ameiican position are performed around the communal camp-
fires, to the great amusement of the natives who refer to the position as the
“missionary position.”
The origin of our present custom is involved in early and later Church
history, and needs clarification before it can be presented with any author-
ity; but certain it is that there was a time in the history of the Christian
Church when the utilization of any other except the present-day position
was made a matter for confession. What has been taken to be a question
374
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
of biologic normality proves, once again, to be a matter of cultural develop-
ment.
Since this is so, it is not surprising to find that within our American cul-
ture there is some variation in coital positions among the social levels.
Throughout the population as a whole, a high proportion of all the inter-
course is had in a position with the female supine, on her back, with the
male above and facing the female. Only a part of the intercourse is had
with the female above the male. This occurs in about 35 per cent of the
college level histories, in 28 per cent of the high school histories, but in only
17 per cent of the grade school histories (Table 95). At the upper level 26
per cent of the males may use a position in which the partners lie on their
sides, facing each other, W only 23 and 16 per cent of the high school and
grade school males try such a technique. Rear entrance into the vagina is
found in 1 1 per cent of college and high school histories, but in less than
8 per cent of the grade school histories. The lower level experiments more
often than the upper level only in sitting and standing positions, but no
group uses these two positions very often.
It should be emphasized that the most common variant position is the
one with the female above. It is used, at least occasionally, by more than a
third (34.6%) of the upper level males. The position was more nearly
universal in Ancient Greece and Rome {vide the art objects and materials,
as well as the literature from that period). It is shown in the oldest known
depiction of human coitus, dating between 3200 and 3000 b.c., from the
Ur excavations in Mesopotamia (Legrain 1936). The position with the
female above is similarly the commonest in the ancient art of Peru, India,
China, Japan, and other civilizations. In spite of its ancient history, many
persons at lower social levels consider the position a considerable perver-
sion. It is associated in their rationalizations with the idea that the female
becomes mascuhne while the male becomes effeminate in assuming such
a position, and that it destroys the dignity of the male and his authority
in the family relationship. There may be a feeling that a male who accepts
this position shows homosexual tendencies. One of the older psychiatrists
goes so far as to insist that the assumption of such a dominating position
by the female in coitus may lead to neurotic disturbances and, in many
cases, to divorce. Even the scientifically trained person is inclined to use
such rationalizations to defend his custom,
PATTERNS OF BEHAVIOR
Within any single social level there are, of course, considerable differ-
ences between individuals in their choice of sexual outlets, and in the fre-
quencies with which they engage in each type of activity. The range of
individual variation in any level is not particularly different from the range
of variation in each other level. Within each group, each individual pattern
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
375
is more or less duplicated by the patterns of individuals in every one of the
other social levels. Nevertheless, the frequencies of each type of variant
are so different for different social levels that the means and the medians
and the general shapes of the frequency curves for the several groups are
perfectly distinct. Translated into everyday thinking, this means that a
large proportion of all the individuals in any group follows patterns of
sexual behavior which are typical of the group, and which are followed by
only a smaller number of the individuals in other groups.
If the mean or median frequencies for each type of sexual activity, at
each social level, are brought together in a single chart (Figures 106, 107),
it becomes possible to see what material differences there are in these
patterns of behavior. Each horizontal line, followed across the chart,
epitomizes the story for one social level. It is, as it were, a silhouette, a
profile representing the essence of the group’s attitudes on matters of sex,
and the translation of those attitudes into overt sexual activity.
Even a child would comprehend that the creature represented in each of
these silhouettes is distinct and unhke the creatures represented in the
other silhouettes.
It is, of course, of prime concern to ask why patterns of sexual behavior
differ as they do in different social levels. It is of scientific importance to
understand how such patterns originate, how they are passed on to each
individual, and how they become standards of behavior for such a high
proportion of all the individuals in each group. It is of equal importance
to understand the social significances of these patterns of sexual behavior.
Few of us have been aware that there were such differences in patterns in
the various subdivisions of our culture. An understanding of the facts may
contribute something toward easing the tensions that arise because indi-
viduals and whole segments of the population fail to understand the sexual
philosophies and the sexual behavior of groups in which they have not
been raised.
We do not yet understand, to the full, the origins of these diverse sexual
philosophies ; but it will be possible to record what the thinking of each
group is in regard to each type of activity.
Masturbation. At lower social levels, and particularly among the older
generations of the lowest levels, masturbation may be looked down upon
as abnormal, a perversion, and an infantile substitute for socio-sexual con-
tacts. Although most lower level boys masturbate during their early adoles-
cence, many of them never have more than a few experiences or, at the most,
regular masturbation for a short period of months or years, after which
they rarely again depend on such self-induced outlets. Among many of
these lower level males, masturbation stops abruptly and immediately
after the first experiences in heterosexual coitus. The lower level boy who
PATTERNS OF THREE EDUCATIONAL LEVELS - ADOLESCENCE - 15
Figure 106. Patterns of sexual behavior at three educational levels, among single males
^ For 3 age groups. Each horizontal line extending across the page summarizes the pattern for one of the educational levels. Rela-
tive lengths of bars in each outlet show average mean frequencies for the group. The scales vary for different sources of outlet, but
there is an approximate indication of the relative importance of each source in the total outlet.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
377
continues to draw any material portion of his sexual outlet from mastur-
bation after his middle teens may be much ashamed of it, and he may
become the object of community jokes and of more serious disapproval if
his history becomes known. In many instances, these attitudes are bolstered
by rationalizations to the effect that masturbation does physical harm; but
the objections are in reality based on the idea that masturbation is either
abnormal, or else an admission that one is incapable of securing hetero-
sexual intercourse and, therefore, socially inadequate. Among some primi-
tive peoples (e.g., Bryk 1933), there is a somewhat similar attitude toward
masturbation — an attitude which does not involve moral evaluations as
much as it involves amusement at the social incapacity of the individual
who has to resort to self stimulation for his sexual outlet. The better edu-
cated portion of the population which so largely depends upon masturba-
tion for its pre-marital outlet, and which draws a not insignificant portion
of its outlet from masturbation after marriage, will be surprised to learn
what the less educated segments of the population think of one who
masturbates instead of having intercourse.
The upper level more or less allows masturbation as not exactly desirable
nor exactly commendable, but not as immoral as a socio-sexual contact.
Older generations of the upper level were not so ready to accept mastur-
bation. As many males were involved in the older generations, but the
frequencies were definitely lower (Chapter 1 1), and there was considerable
moral conflict over the rightness or wrongness .of the “habit” (Chapter 14).
Upper level males have accepted masturbation more freely within the last
two or three decades, and today a high proportion of the teen-age boys
of the college group frankly and openly admit this form of pre-marital
outlet. During their years in college about 70 per cent of these males
depend upon masturbation as their chief source of outlet. They derive
about 66 per cent of their orgasms from this source during their college
years.
The upper level’s pre-marital experience leads it to include masturbation
as a source of outlet after marriage. The coital adjustments of this group
in marriage are frequently poor, particularly because of the low degree of
erotic responsiveness which exists among many of the college-bred females.
This offers some excuse for masturbation among the married males of the
group; but their early acceptance of masturbation in their pre-marital
histories, and their tardy acceptance of heterosexual coitus, are prime
determinants in the marital patterns. There are few things in all human
sexual behavior which will surprise the poorly educated groups more than
this considerable utilization of masturbation by the college-bred male as
an outlet after marriage.
Petting. The social levels are furthest apart in their attitudes on petting
and on pre-marital intercourse. The two items are related, for petting,
378
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
SOURCES
Sources of Orgasm: Single Males
% OF Total Outlet
ADOL.-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
Educational Level 0-8
Masturbation
Nocturnal emissions
Petting to climax
Intercourse with companions
Intercourse with prostitutes
Homosexual outlet
Animal contacts
52.26
1.82
1.06
35.00
0.97
8.03
0.86
29.15
4.83
1.66
50.62
6.21
6.85
0.68
20.15
5.02
1.23
52.84
12.55
8.06
0.15
20.68
6.26
1.96
42.71
14.34
14.04 1
0.01
24.24
5,49
0.68
23.74
18.42
27.43
28.95
5.97
0.05
23.08
23.35
18.60
Total outlet
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
Number of cases
712
720
361
159
61
47
Total solitary outlets
54.08
33.98
25.17
26.94
29.73
34.92
Total heterosexual outlets
37.03
58.49
66.62
59.01
42.84
46.48
Total homosexual outlet
8.03
6.85
8.06
14.04
27.43
18.60
Educational Level 9-12
Masturbation
Nocturnal emissions
Petting to climax
Intercourse with companions
Intercourse with prostitutes
Homosexual outlet
Animal contacts
59.09
4.44
1.46
24.93
0.44
8.73
0.91
37.17
6.33
2.37
39.49
2.75
10.81
1.08
29.67
8.10
2.77
38.02
4.66
16.31
0.47
27.69
7.48
1.82
29.75
6.46
25.95
0.85
18.48 i
8.21
1.35
42.81
10.32
18.83
Total outlet
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
Number of cases
606
607
263
117
41
Total solitary outlets
63.53
43.50
37.77
35.17
26.69
Total heterosexual outlets
26.83
44.61
45.45
38,03
54.48
Total homosexual outlet
8.73
10.81
16.31
25.95
18.83
Educational Level 13+
Masturbation
Nocturnal emissions
Petting to climax 1
Intercourse with companions
Intercourse with prostitutes
Homosexual outlet
Animal contacts
79.61
12.15
1.54
2.74
O.ll
3.14
0.71
66.37
15,65
5.26
9.13
0.80
2.43
0.36
53.30
15.67
7.50
18.45
1.27
3.72
0.09
45.88
11.93
5.17
24.97
3.16
8.82
0.07
44.28
10.67
4.98
21.52
0.65
17.90
Total outlet
100.00
100,00
100.00
100.00
100.00
Number of cases
2799
2861
1898
487
87
Total solitary outlets ^
91.76
82.02
68.97
57.81
54.95
Total heterosexual outlets
4.39
15.19
27.22
33.30
27.15
Total homosexual outlet
3.14
2.43
3.72
8.82
17.90
Tftble 96. Sources of sexual outlet for single males, at three educational levels
Showing percentages of total outlet derived by each group from each source.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET 379
among males of the college level, is more or less a substitute for actual
coitus.
In the upper level code of sexual morality, there is nothing so important
as the preservation of the virginity of the female and, to a somewhat lesser
degree, the similar preservation of the virginity of the male until the time
of marriage. The utilization of pre-marital petting at this level is fortified
by the emphasis which the marriage manuals place upon the importance
of pre-coital techniques in married relations ; and the younger generation
considers that its experience before marriage may contribute something to
the development of satisfactory marital relations. Compared with coitus,
petting has the advantage of being accessible under conditions where
coitus would be impossible; it provides a simpler means of achieving both
arousal and orgasm, it makes it possible to experience orgasm while
avoiding the possibility of a pregnancy, and, above all, it preserves one’s
“virginity.” Whether consciously or unconsciously, petting is chosen by
the upper level because intercourse destroys virginity and is, therefore,
unacceptable. It is significant to note what different values are attached,
at that level, to erotic arousal and orgasm achieved through the union of
genitalia, and to erotic arousal and orgasm achieved through physical
contact of other portions of the body, or even through genital contact or
genital manipulation which does not involve actual copulation.
There are many males in the upper level who develop a fine art of
achieving orgasm by petting techniques which avoid intercourse. The
youth who may have experienced orgasm scores or hundreds of times in
petting, and who may have utilized every type of petting technique, in-
cluding mouth-genital contacts, still has the satisfaction of knowing that
he is still a virgin, as his level defines virginity. There are even cases of
males who effect genital union; but because they avoid orgasm while in
such union they persuade themselves that they are still virgins. The illogic
of the situation emphasizes the fact that the basic issue is one of conforming
with a code (the avoidance of pre-marital intercourse, the preservation of
one’s virginity), which is of paramount importance in the mores of this
social level.
The lower educational levels see no sense in this. They have nothing
like this strong taboo against pre-marital intercourse and, on the contrary,
accept it as natural and inevitable and a desirable thing. Lower level
taboos are more often turned against an avoidance of intercourse, and
against any substitution for simple and direct coitus. Petting involves a
considerable list of techniques which may be acceptable to the college
group, and to some degree to the high school group, but which are quite
taboo at lower levels (as discussed above). It is just because petting involves
these techniques, and because it substitutes for actual intercourse, that it
is considered a perversion by the lower level.
PATTERNS OF THREE EDUCATIONAL LEVELS • AGE GROUP 16-20
380
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
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SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
381
In particular cases, older persons, even at upper levels, have objected
to pre-marital petting; but individual objections do not have the force of
long-established mores. Pre-marital intercourse is condemned by mores
which go back hundreds and thousands of years. Such taboos are very
different from the criticisms which lone individuals have levied against
petting within the last few decades, and for the most part the younger
generation has paid little attention to such criticisms.
There is nothing in the behavior of the upper level which is more respon-
sible than petting is for the general opinion that college students are sex-
ually wild. The lower level has many times as much pre-marital intercourse
as the college male has, and it is not the intercourse of the college student
which is the source of the lower level’s criticism. It is the fact that petting
may be engaged in for many hours without arriving at intercourse — it is
the fact that intercourse itself is not more often accepted as a pre-marital
outlet by the upper social level.
Pre-marital Intercourse. With the upper educational level, the question
of pre-marital intercourse is largely one of morals. Some of the younger
generation find it modern to insist that they do not avoid pre-marital
intercourse because it is wrong, but because they consider intercourse top
precious to have with anyone except the girl that they marry, or because
they consider that marriages work out better when there has been no pre-
marital intercourse. To this extent the younger generation is “emanci-
pated”; but the change in the form of its rationalizations has not affected
its overt behavior one whit (Chapter 1 1).
A large portion of the 85 per cent of the population which never goes to
college accepts pre-marital intercourse as normal and natural. Most of
this group would insist that there is no question of right or wrong involved.
Even some lower level clergymen, of the group that has never gone beyond
grade school or high school, may react as the rest of the community of
which they are a part, preaching against profanity, smoking, drinking,
gambling, and extra-marital intercourse, but considering that no moral
issue is involved in pre-marital intercourse. So nearly universal is pre-
marital intercourse among grade school groups that in two or three lower
level communities in which we have worked we have been unable to find
a solitary male who had not had sexual relations with girls by the time
he was 16 or 17 years of age. In such a community, the occasional boy
who has not had intercourse by that age is either physically incapacitated,
mentally deficient, homosexual, or ear-marked for moving out of his
community and going to college.
Lower level males may have a certain respect for virginity, and this may
lead them to insist (in 41 per cent of the cases) that they would not marry
a girl who had had previous intercourse (Table 92); but this may be more
of a profession than a matter on which they will stand when it comes to the
382
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HOMAN MALE
Sources of Orgasm: Married Males
% OF Total Outlet
SOURCES
16-20
21-25
26-30
31-35
36-40
41-45
46-50
Educational Level 0-8
Masturbation
2 40
2.43
2.44
1.79
1.59
j
1.41
1.4
Nocturnal emissions
3 08
2.79 i
3.41
3 03
1.85
2.25
2.6
Intercourse, marital
79.92
81.03
86.15
88 07
88.09
89.96
89.9
Interc., extra-m., comp.
10 91
11.62
6.38
5 51
7.24
4.84
4.7
Interc., extra-m., prost
0.61
0.80 i
1.16
1.46
0.93
1.46
1.4
Homosexual outlet
3.08
1.33
0.46
0.14
0.30
0.08
0.0
Total outlet
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.0
Number of cases
158
324
292 1
186
143
100
70
Total solitary outlets
5.48
5.22
5.85
4.82 i
3.44
3.66
4.0
Total hetero. outlets
91.44
93.45
93.69
95.04
96.26
96.26
96.0
Total homo, outlet
3.08
1.33
0.46
0.14
0.30
0.08
0.0
Educational Level 9-12
Masturbation
2.75
3.70
5.05
4 04 1
3.15
1.68
2.8
Nocturnal emissions
2.04
2.85
3.22
3.79 ,
4 48
5.29
2.9
Intercourse, marital
82.19
81.56
81.67
85.18
88.19
89.18
91.0
Interc., extra-m., comp.
9.43
9.35
7.61
4.62
1.76
3.15
3.1
Interc., extra-m., prost.
1.48
1.49
1.49
0 99
1.69
0.70 1
0.2
Homosexual outlet
2.11
1.05
0.96
1.38
0.73
j
Total outlet
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.0
Number of cases
87
164
135
82
58
34
24
Total solitary outlets
4.79
6.55
8 27
7 83
7.63
6.97
5.7
Total hetero. outlets
93 10
92.40
90.77
90.79
91.64
93.03
94.3
Total homo, outlet
2,11
1.05
0.96
1.38
0.73
Educational Level 13+
Masturbation
8.53
8.79
8.67
9.28
8.26
9.71
9.0
Nocturnal emissions
2.99
4.65
4.69
5.71
6.06
5.87
5.4
Intercourse, marital
85.41
83.94
82.76
78.34 ,
74.41
76.39
68.5
Interc., extra-m., comp.
2.86
1.86
2.72
5.51
9.85
6.07
13.7
Interc., extra-m., prost.
0.05
0.23
0.20
0.41 i
0.53
0.32
0.4
Homosexual outlet
0.16
0.53
0.96
0.75
0.89
1.64
3.0
Total outlet
100.00
100,00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.00
100.0
Number of cases
46
440
532
301
189
138
81
Total solitary outlets
11.52
13.44
1 13.36
14.99
14.32
15.58
14.4
Total hetero. outlets
88.32
86.03
1 85.68
84.26
84.79
82.78
82.6
Total homo, outlet
0.16
0.53
0.96
0.75
0.89
1.64
3.0
Table 97. Sources of sexual outlet for married males, at three educational levels
Showing percentages of total outlet derived by each group from each source.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
383
actual choice of a mate. Lower level males are likely to acquire weekly or
more than weekly frequencies in intercourse soon after they start in early
adolescence, or at least by the middle teens. They are often highly promis-
cuous in their choice of pre-marital partners, and there are many who have
no interest in having intercourse with the same girl more than once. This
strikingly parallels the promiscuity which is found among those homosexual
males who are “oncers,” as the vernacular term puts it. Some lower level
males may have pre-marital intercourse with several hundred or even a
thousand or more different girls before marriage, and here their behavior
is most different from the behavior of the college-bred males.
Extra-marital Intercourse. In lower social levels there is a somewhat
bitter acceptance of the idea that the male is basically promiscuous and
that he is going to have extra-marital intercourse, whether or not his wife
or society objects. There is some continuation of the group attitude on
pre-marital intercourse into the realm of extra-marital intercourse, at least
in the early years of marriage. On the other hand, the upper level male who
has been heterosexually restrained for 10 or 15 years before marriage does
not freely let down and start extra-marital intercourse as soon as he has
learned to have coitus with his wife. As a matter of fact, a male who has
been so restrained often has difficulty in working out a sexual adjustment
with his wife, and it is doubtful whether very many of the upper level males
would have any facility in finding extra-marital intercourse, even if they
were to set out deliberately after it. The lower level’s extra-marital inter-
course does cause trouble, but we do not yet understand all the factors
which account for the fact that with advancing age there is a steady decline
and finally a near disappearance of extra-marital intercourse from lower
level marital histories (Chapter 7).
The development of extra-marital intercourse in the histories of the
older males of the upper level (Chapter 7) is done with a certain delibera-
tion which in some cases may be acceded to and encouraged by the wife.
Homosexual Contacts. The considerable differences which exist in the
incidences and frequencies of the homosexual in the three educational
levels (Table 90) would seem to indicate basic differences in attitudes to-
ward such activity; but we are not sure that we yet understand what these
differences are.
The fewest objections to the homosexual are found in the very lowest of
the social levels, in the best educated groups, and in top society. At the
lowest social levels sex, whether it be heterosexual or homosexual, is more
or less accepted as inevitable. The children here are the least restrained
sexually and usually become involved in both heterosexual and homo-
sexual activities at an early age (Chapter 5). Since this is the group in which
pre-adolescent behavior most often carries over into adult behavior
384
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
(Table 29), it is not surprising to find a fair number of the males at this
level continuing both types of activity through the major portion of their
lives. It is notable, however, that there are few individuals in this group
who become exclusively homosexual. There are some who definitely con-
demn the homosexual, but there are many who accept it simply as one
more form of sex. Rarely do they interfere with other persons who are
involved, even though they themselves may not enter into such activities.
The acceptance of the homosexual in top educational and social levels is
the product of a wider understanding of realities, some comprehension of
the factors involved, and more concern over the mental qualities and social
capacities of an individual than over anything in his sexual history.
The highest incidences of the homosexual, however, are in the group
which most often verbalizes its disapproval of such activity. This is in the
group that goes into high school but never beyond in its educational career.
These are the males who most often condemn the homosexual, most often
ridicule and express disgust for such activity, and most often punish other
males for their homosexuality. And yet, this is the group which has the
largest amount of overt homosexual activity. Their involvement may be
due to curiosity, to the fact that one may profit financially by accepting
homosexual relations, or to the fact that one may derive a sadistic satis-
faction from beating up the partner after orgasm has been achieved in the
homosexual activity. In a certain segment of this group the idea is more or
less accepted that one may uphold the heterosexual mores while “playing
the queers,” provided one punishes them after orgasm is achieved in the
homosexual relation. As a group these males may strenuously deny that
their sexual contacts have anything to do with homosexuality; but the full
and complete record indicates that many of them have stronger psychic
reactions to other males than they care to admit. When they no longer find
themselves being paid for such contacts, many of them begin paying other
males for the privilege of sexual relations.
If there are group attitudes in regard to the homosexual, they are not as
freely discussed at most social levels. It may be that this explains why
community thinking is not so well crystallized on this subject as it is in
regard to other forms of sexual activity.
SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
Each social level is convinced that its pattern is the best of all patterns;
but each level rationalizes its behavior in its own way.
The upper level rationalizes on the basis of what is right or wrong. For
this group, all socio-sexual behavior becomes a moral issue. Morality and
sexual morality become more or less synonymous terms. Many persons at
this level believe that there are few types of immorality which are more
enormous than sexual immorality. Proper, straight, upright, honorable.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
385
clean, fine, wholesome, manly, and pure refer primarily to abstinence from
socio-sexual relations. Their opposites refer to participation in non-marital
sexual relations. Honor, fidelity, and success in marriage are understood
to involve the complete absorption of the individual’s sexual urge in coitus
with his wife. There is nothing of which persons at this level are more afraid
than a charge of immorality, as immorality is defined by the group. There
is no disgrace that is jnore feared than that which may result from sexual
scandal. Sex is so clearly a moral issue that many persons in the group
consider it a religious obligation to impose their code upon all other seg-
ments of the population.
Lower social levels, on the contrary, rationalize their patterns of sexual
behavior on the basis of what is natural or unnatural. Pre-marital inter-
course is natural, and it is, in consequence, acceptable. Masturbation is
not natural, nor is petting as a substitute for intercourse, nor even petting
as a preliminary to intercourse.
There are some individuals at lower levels who do see moral issues in
sexual behavior, but by and large even they recognize that nature will
triumph over morals. They may “know that intercourse is wrong,” but
“they expect to have it anyway, because it is human and natural to have it.”
It is not at all unusual to find middle class persons who have had inter-
course with scores or even hundreds of girls, still insisting that they would
never marry a girl who was not a virgin (Table 92). If the upper level male
departs from his code and has intercourse, he is most likely to have it with
the fiancee. His excuse is that “it is not wrong when love is involved.”
The middle class or lower level male, on the contrary, may frankly state
that “I didn’t think anything of her, so we had intercourse. But when I
find the girl that I really love, I won’t touch her until I marry her.” To
many persons in the upper level, and to some in the middle class, the moral
issues are matters of divine revelation and mandate. As a fundamentalist
professor of philosophy put it, “There are some things that one innately
understands to be right or wrong, and about which there is no need for
logical discussion.”
For both upper and lower levels, these matters do lie deeper than logic.
There are, in consequence, no rational arguments, no cool discussions, no
initial presentations of data, no investigations after the fact when diverse
sexual patterns come into conflict. Like matters of religion, the mores are
simply accepted and defended. For many persons, the mores are even
more implicit than religious tenets. The arguments that are produced in
their defense are the veriest sorts of rationalizations. If they cannot be
defended in any other way, they are accepted as products of the experience
of the past which has culminated in the wisdom of the present custom.
Most of the tragedies that develop out of sexual activities are products
of this conflict between the attitudes of different social levels. Sexual activi-
386
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
ties in themselves rarely do physical damage, but disagreements over the
significance of sexual behavior may result in personality conflicts, a loss of
social standing, imprisonment, disgrace, and the loss of life itself.
In Clinical Practice. Wherever professionally trained persons try to
direct the behavior of lower level individuals, conflicts are likely to arise
because of these diverse sexual philosophies. Clinicians of all groups,
including physicians, clinical psychologists, school psychologists, nurses,
psychiatrists— particularly if they work in public clinics — have a portion
and sometimes a major portion of their contacts with lower social levels.
The sexual advice which the upper level clinician gives will mean most when
it takes into account the background of the community from which the
client comes. The upper level physician or nurse who expects the lower
level patient to disrobe for physical examination should understand that
he outrages the mores of the group in which the patient has been raised.
The physician who mixes moral advice with his medical prescription should
realize that the applicability of his advice will vary with the social level
from which the patient comes. The woman physician in a prison may never
become reconciled to the fact that every one of the inmates in the institution
proves to have had coital experience before reaching the institution; but
she must comprehend that her effectiveness as a physician is impaired
when she proffers moral advice which has no relation to the realities of the
world from which the inmate comes.
Marriage counseling, as set up today, is based upon concepts of mar-
riage, goals, and ideals which may appear right to the educational level from
which the marriage counselors come, and from which most of the coun-
selor’s clients also come, but which mean something else in the communi-
ties from which a lower level client may come. The sexual techniques which
marriage councils and marriage manuals recommend are designed to
foster the sort of intellectual eroticism which the upper level esteems. It
depends on prolonged pre-coital play, a considerable variety in techniques,
a maximum of stimulation before coital union, some delay after effecting
such union, and, finally, orgasm which is simultaneous for the male and
the female. Most of this, however, would be anathema to a large portion
of the population, and an outrage to their mores. Many marriage counselors
would like to impose their own upper level patterns on their clients, with-
out regard to the complications which may develop when an individual is
educated into something that puts him at discord with the mores of the
society in which he was raised and in which he may still be living.
In industry, some of the conflicts which arise between the better educated
management and the more poorly educated labor may depend on failures
to comprehend the diverse sexual patterns which are involved. Trained
persons are increasingly used for personnel staffs in industrial plants. These
persons, however, are not always aware of the viewpoints of lower level
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
387
groups. Personnel managers, social workers, psychologists, physicians who
try to comprehend and accept the patterns by which these other levels live,
might aid in establishing a better rapport between labor and management.
In Social Service. Wherever people of different social levels come into
contact, conflicts between sexual patterns, and failures to understand the
patterns of other groups and the philosophies that lie back of them, pro-
vide considerable impediments to any cooperation between the groups.
Administrators of institutions need to understand the patterns of the com-
munities from which their inmate populations come. This is especially
true in penal institutions, in homes for the feeble-minded, in children’s
homes, in homes for the aged, in hospitals, and in other institutions whose
populations come mostly from lower social levels. Heads of boarding
schools and of colleges are not so often concerned with this problem,
because their populations come largely from their own social level; but
teachers in public grade schools and in public high schools are regularly
confronted with the problem of understanding cultures other than their
own. The unmarried college graduate who is an eighth grade teacher will
find it difficult to understand how her eighth grade boy, from the laborer’s
or mechanic’s home, could be so evil as to have had intercourse with one of
her fourteen-year old girls. Her reaction, based upon her upper level
standards, may result in the boy’s expulsion from school, and in public
disgrace for both the boy and the girl. The teacher does not realize that
more than a fourth (28%) of all her other eighth grade boys have similarly
had intercourse (Table 136). The boy who was caught might have been
handled differently if the teacher had known more about the boy’s back-
ground.
Social workers are involved with sexual problems even more often than
physicians. There are cases of pre-marital pregnancies, of rape, of divorce
resulting from sexual conflicts between the parents of the children in whom
the social worker is interested. There may be coitus, and sometimes inces-
tuous relations, between the children and the adults in the community.
These last are things that may offend the community as well as the social
worker. But everywhere the social worker runs into a record of sexual
contacts among children, pre-marital intercourse, and extra-marital inter-
course; and although the community accepts these things as inevitable, the
social worker sees the behavior in terms of her own mores, and may be
outraged and vindictive in her reactions. She may refuse welfare allow-
ances to a family in which there is such “delinquency.” In many cases,
it is the welfare worker who brings the case of sexual activity to the atten-
tion of the court. Often it is she who initiates the moves to have such
“neglected” children taken away from their parents and made wards of
the court, for placement in other families or in children’s homes or in
juvenile disciplinary institutions. The untrained, less educated individual
388
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
who enters social work, particularly in smaller communities, sometimes
has a better understanding of the realities of these lower level groups. Some
of the graduates of some of the better schools for social workers may also
have some comprehension of these differences between levels. The least
comprehending are the well intentioned, upper level women who turn to
social work as a contribution to civic welfare. Some of the most poorly
understood groups are in lower level Negro communities, and it takes a
social worker who is capable of comprehending a great deal more than her
own social level to work effectively with such a group. It is sometimes sug-
gested that Negro communities should be handled only by Negro social
workers; but educated, upper level Negroes may have as little compre-
hension of a lower level Negro community’s attitudes as upper level white
persons would have. In fact, the upper level Negro worker may be even
more intent upon “raising” the pattern of the lower level community, in
a move designed to bring credit to Negroes as a race.
In the Army and Navy. Officers in the Army and Navy are faced with
the problem of dealing with persons of diverse social levels who are brought
together into a single, closely knit community. Since most of the popula-
tion has not gone beyond the tenth grade in school, most of the men in
the armed forces have lower level patterns of sexual behavior. Some of the
officers come out of the ranks and comprehend these patterns. Profes-
sionally trained officers who are products of West Point or Annapolis, or
of some other special school, are more likely to come from better educated
levels. Some of the incongruities which exist between Army and Navy
rules and the administration of those rules are products of these differ-
ences in the backgrounds of officers and enlisted men. American armies of
occupation have found themselves in cultures that are different from our
own in their attitudes on matters of sex. The upper level officer who estab-
lishes the law for the country he is temporarily ruling may try to impose
“moral standards” which reflect the mores of only a limited portion of our
American population, upon the whole of a foreign people who have none
of the sexual patterns of any of our social levels.
During times of peace, the better educated segments of the population
are sufficiently isolated to be unaware of the sexual patterns in the mass of
the population. In times of war, when these upper level groups are suddenly
thrust into close contact with these other levels, they are startled to dis-
cover the realities of human behavior. They are inclined to blame all of
the sexual activity which enlisted men have upon the organization of the
Army and Navy itself. The specific data which we have indicate that very
few of the men in the armed forces are as active sexually as they would have
been at home in times of peace, but the upper level, especially the older
generatioii of the upper level, is unaware of this. Considerable pressure, in
consequence, is brought upon military officials to establish and enforce
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
389
rules, and upon Congress to enact laws which are designed to force all
of the heterogeneous group which constitutes a draft army into an upper
level pattern of sexual behavior. The demand is fortified by an emphasis
upon the dangers of venereal disease; but it is certain that many of the
persons who discuss disease are more concerned over the morals of the
men for whom the government has suddenly become responsible. Such an
issue could be grasped more intelligently if more people understood the
origins of the sexual patterns of the men in uniform.
In Everyday Contacts. In general, the upper level feels that ‘dower level
morality” lacks the ideals and the righteousness of the upper level philos-
ophy. The lower level, on the other hand, feels that educated and upper
level society has an artificial and insincere pattern of sexual behavior which
is all the more obnoxious because the upper level tries to force its pattern
upon all other levels. Legends about the immorality of the lower level are
matched by legends about the perversions of the upper level. One is in-
clined to accept the particular legends that apply to the group to which one
does not belong. Such legends reach their maximum proportions when
they concern whole racial or national groups: “The French do this, the
Chinese do that.” Primitive peoples and pagans are always believed to be
aberrant in their sexual lives. There are exaggerated legends concerning
the Negro's sexual behavior, and Negro leaders are much disturbed over
such popular beliefs (Cobb 1947). Sexual propaganda against the Jews as
a race was a cornerstone of the Hitlerian attack on that group in Germany.
Both Nazi and Japanese propaganda included attacks on the sexual
behavior of Americans at home. There are traditions concerning the sexual
behavior of the Italian, Spanish, Latin American, and other groups, even
though there are no objective data to establish any generalizations. There
are, of course, endless variations in sexual patterns in each of these popu-
lations, just as there are in our own American population. What data we
have so far on these other groups indicate that there is at least some
stratification of social levels in all of them; and this would lead one to pre-
suppose that each group would, therefore, have a variety of sexual patterns.
In the La^v. Anglo-American sex laws are a codification of the sexual
mores of the better educated portion of the population. While they are
rooted in the English common law, their maintenance and defense lie
chiefly in the hands of state legislators and judges who, for the most part,
come from better-educated levels.
Consequent on this fact, the written codes severely penalize all non-
marital intercourse, whether it occurs before or after marriage; but they do
not make masturbation a crime, even though there are a few courts which
have tried to read such interpretations into the law (Chapter 8).
However, the enforcement of the law is placed in the hands of police
officials who come largely from grade school and high school segments of
390
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
the population. For that reason, the laws against non-marital intercourse
are rarely and only capriciously enforced, and then most often when upper
level individuals demand such police action. It is difficult for a lower level
policeman or detective to feel that much of a crime is being committed
when he finds a boy and a girl involved in the sort of sexual activity which
was part of his own adolescent history, and which he knows was in the
histories of most of the youth in the community in which he was raised.
If the behavior involves persons against whom the policeman has a grudge
(probably for some totally non-sexual reason), if the relation involves too
public an exhibition, if it involves a contact between a much older and a
younger person (which under the policeman’s code is more or less taboo),
if it involves a relation between persons belonging to different racial
groups (which under his code may be exceedingly taboo), then the laws
against pre-marital intercourse become convenient tools for punishing these
other activities. But if it is the routine sort of relationship that the officer
very well knows occurs regularly in the lower level community, then he
may pay little attention to the enforcement of the laws. The policeman’s
behavior may appear incongruous or hypocritical to the citizen from the
other side of the town, but it is based on a comprehension of realities of
which the other citizen is not often aware. There are policemen who frankly
state that they consider it one of their functions to keep the judge from
knowing things that he simply does not understand.
On the other hand, if it is the case of a boy who is found masturbating
in a back alley, the policeman is likely to push the case through court and
see that the boy is sent to an institution for indecent exposure, for moral
degeneracy, or for perversion. When the boy arrives in the reformatory,
the small-town sheriff may send a letter urging that the administration of
the institution pay especial attention to curing the boy of the perversion.
However, the educated superintendent of the institution is not much im-
pressed by the problem, and he may explain to the boy that masturbation
does him no harm, even though the law penalizes him for his public expo-
sure, The superintendent may let it be known among his officers that mas-
turbation seems to him to be a more acceptable form of sexual outlet than
the homosexual activity which involves some of the inmates of the insti-
tution, and he may even believe that he has actually provided for the
sexual needs of his wards by making such a ruling. On the other hand,
the guards in the institution, who are the officials most often in contact
with the inmates, have lower level backgrounds and lower level attitudes
toward masturbation. In consequence, they continue to punish inmates
who are discovered masturbating as severely as they would punish them
for homosexual activity.
On sex cases, the decisions of the judge on the bench are often affected
by the mores of the group from which he originated. Judges often come
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
391
from better educated groups, and their severe condemnation of sex offend-
ers is largely a defense of the code of their own social level. Lower level
individuals simply do not understand the bitter denunciations which many
a judge heaps upon the lower level boy or girl who has been involved in
sexual relations. They cannot see why behavior which, to them, seems
perfectly natural and humanly inevitable should be punishable under the
law. For them, there is no majesty in laws which are as unrealistic as the
sex laws. Life is a maze. The sex laws and the upper level persons who
defend them are simply hazards about which one has to learn to find his
way. Like the rough spots in a sidewalk, or the traffic on a street, the sex
laws are things that one learns to negotiate without getting into too much
trouble; but that is no reason why one should not walk on sidewalks, or
cross streets, or have sexual relations.
The influence of the mores is strikingly shown by a study of the decisions
which are reached by judges with different social backgrounds. There is
still a portion of the legal profession that has not gone to college and,
particularly where judges are elected by popular vote, there are some
instances of judges who have originated in lower social levels and acquired
their legal training by office apprenticeship or night school courses. The
significance of the background becomes most apparent when two judges,
one of upper level and one of lower level, sit in alternation on the same
bench. The record of the upper level judge may involve convictions and
maximum sentences in a high proportion of the sex cases, particularly
those that involve non-marital intercourse or prostitution. The judge with
the lower level background may convict in only a small fraction of the
cases. The lower level community recognizes these differences between
judges, and expresses the hope that when it is brought to trial it will come
before the second judge, because “he understands.” The experienced
attorney similarly sees to it that his case is set for trial when the under-
standing judge is on the bench. Parole officers and social workers who
investigate cases before they are decided in court may have a good deal to
do with setting a particular case before a particular judge, in order to get
a verdict that accords with the philosophy of their (the parole officers’)
background.
Judges who are ignorant of the way in which the other three-quarters of
the population lives, naively believe that the police officials are apprehend-
ing all of those who are involved in any material infraction of the sex laws.
If the community has been aroused by a sex case which has involved a
forceful rape or a death following a sexual relation, the judge may lead
the other public officials in demanding the arrest of all sex offenders in the
community. Newspapers goad the police, and there is likely to be a wave of
arrests and convictions which carry maximum sentences, until the wide
scope of the problem becomes apparent to even the most unrealistic
392
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
official. It will be recalled that 85 per cent of the total male population has
pre-marital intercourse (Table 136), 59 per cent has some experience in
mouth-genital contacts (Table 94), nearly 70 per cent has relations with
prostitutes (Table 138), something between 30 and 45 per cent has extra-
marital intercourse (Tables 85, 111), 37 per cent has some homosexual
experience (Table 139), 17 per cent of the farm boys have animal inter-
course (Table 151). All of these, and still other types of sexual behavior
(Chapter 8), are illicit activities, each performance of which is punishable as
a crime under the law. The persons involved in these activities, taken as a
whole, constitute more than 95 per cent of the total male population. Only
a relatively small proportion of the males who are sent to penal institu-
tions for sex offenses have been involved in behavior which is materially
different from the behavior of most of the males in the population. But
it is the total 95 per cent of the male population for which the judge, or
board of pubhc safety, or church, or civic group demands apprehension,
arrest, and conviction, when they call for a clean-up of the sex offenders in
a community. It is, in fine, a proposal that 5 per cent of the population
should support the other 95 per cent in penal institutions. The only possible
defense of the proposal is the fact that the judge, the civic leader, and most
of the others who make such suggestions, come from that segment of the
population which is most restrained on nearly all types of sexual behavior,
and they simply do not understand how the rest of the population actually
lives.
The penalties visited upon persons who are convicted of sex offense may
be peculiarly severe, just because the judge does not comprehend the lower
level background of the offender. The judge may give a long sentence
because he beheves that such a stay in prison will reform the ways of the
particular individual who is being punished; but again he fails to under-
stand the deep origins of sexual behavior. Data which we have on more
than 1200 persons who have been convicted of sex offenses indicate that
there are very few who modify their sexual patterns as a result of their
contacts with the law, or, indeed, as a result of anything that happens to
them after they have passed their middle teens. This is not because con-
victed sex offenders are peculiarly degenerate or different from the mass
of the population. It is simply because all persons have their sexual pat-
terns laid down for them by the custom of the communities in which they
are raised.
The sex offender is a marked individual in the penal institution to which
he is sent. He is lectured on the heinous nature of his crime by the prison
official who receives him, even though in many cases he has not been in-
volved in sex behavior which is fundamentally different from that of the
institutional official himself. There is a mystery connected with the nature
of the specific sexual activity for which a sex offender is convicted, and
this brings emotional reactions from all persons concerned.
SOCIAL LEVEL AND SEXUAL OUTLET
393
When it comes to a question of releasing sex offenders, parole boards
are loath to take action. The inmate is judged by the standards of the
upper level community from which most parole board members come.
Women on prison boards are especially likely to come from a social level
where the loss of virginity before marriage is an unforgivable moral
offense. The girl whose future they are deciding comes from a community
where three-fourths of the girls have intercourse before marriage. Persons
who attempt to control the behavior of other persons might more properly
be concerned with determining the extent of the departure of the individual
from the behavior of the community of which he is a part.
Conflicts between social levels are as intense as the conflicts between
nations, between cultures, between races, and between the most extreme
of the religious groups. The existence of the conflict between sexual pat-
terns is, however, not recognized by the parties immediately concerned,
because neither of them understands the diversity of patterns which exist
at different social levels. Each thinks that he is in a conflict with a particular
individual. He is, however, more often in conflict with a whole culture.
SOCIAL LEVELS AMONG NEGROES
As already explained, we do not yet have enough histories of Negroes
to warrant their inclusion in the analyses that have been made in the pres-
ent volume. Any fair comparison of Negroes and whites will have to be
made for groups that are homogeneous in regard to age, education, social
level, religious background, and still other factors. It is impossible to
generalize concerning the behavior of a whole race. Analyses of any com-
plex population, to be scientific, must be confined to particular segments
of that population. Preliminary findings show that there are as many
patterns of behavior among Negroes of different social levels as there are
among whites. It is already clear that Negro and white patterns for com-
parable social levels are close if not identical. Since erroneous conclusions
to the contrary have been drawn by certain persons who have seen some
of our data prior to publication, it is important to emphasize here that
final generalizations will be warranted only after a sufficient body of his-
tories has been obtained at each and every social level among Negro
groups.
Chapter 11
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
Before going further in discussing the stability of patterns of sexual
behavior, it should be emphasized again (as in Chapter 10) that there is,
inevitably, a considerable variation among the individuals in any social
group. This variation involves the frequencies of total sexual outlet, the
choice of activities in which each individual may engage, and his frequen-
cies in each type of activity. There is similar variation in attitudes on all
other matters of sex.
The frequency curves in Chapters 14 to 21) show how far individ-
uals in any particular educational level or occupational class may depart
from the averages which are the bases for most of the discussions in the
present chapters on social levels. These same curves, however, show that
80 to 85 per cent of each population is likely to lie within an area close to
the calculated means or medians. This is true for each of the outlets in-
volved; but if an individual is rather far removed from the average in
regard to any one outlet, he is still likely to fit the generalizations made for
his group for most of the other outlets. He is much less likely to depart
from the pattern of his social group in regard to each and all of the indi-
vidual outlets.
How often individuals conform in every regard, how often they depart
in some respects, how often they are in discord with their social group on
all items, are matters which we shall have to follow up with more precise
calculations at some later date. For the present we shall have to be satis-
fied with comparisons of such general pictures as may be recognized for
whole groups, through calculations of means, medians, incidences, and
other statistics.
PATTERNS IN SUCCESSIVE GENERATIONS
In order to ascertain how much stability there may be in patterns of
sexual behavior, and something of the changes that may occur in patterns
within the lives of individuals and between successive generations of indi-
viduals, we have made two sorts of calculations for the present chapter.
The first has involved a comparison of the incidences and average frequen-
cies in two generations of the same educational level. The second has con-
cerned the patterns of behavior of individuals, compared with the patterns
of behavior in the occupational classes to which their parents belonged
394
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS 395
and in which these individuals have either stayed or from which they have
moved into some other occupational class.
Many persons, of course, believe that patterns of sexual behavior have
changed considerably within the last generation or two. Some persons seem
to find a masochistic satisfaction in believing that the world is continu-
ously becoming more evil The upper level critic believes that the younger
generation is having an increasing amount of pre-marital intercourse, that
fewer men are faithful to their wives, that promiscuous petting, embodying
mysteries which older persons do not well understand, is lowering stand-
ards among youth, and that more unmentionable things are steadily on
the increase (e,g., Cooper 1939, Rice 1946, McPartland 1947). The lower
level critic has fewer opportunities to voice his opinions in print, but he is
as certain that young people are sexually more precocious, and (above all)
he is convinced that the younger generation of the better educated segment
of the population is becoming perverted beyond all previous imagining.
As already indicated (Chapter 10), “perversion,” to this lower level, refers
to masturbation in an adult, involvement in petting, oral eroticism, the
use of variety in coital positions, and the homosexual
If it were not for the fact that there have been similar Cassandras
throughout the history of the world, one could almost be persuaded to
believe that these persons possessed scientifically adequate data on the
sexual behavior of previous generations, which they have been able to
compare with equally adequate data on the behavior of the present genera-
tion. There is, certainly, a considerable amount of sexual literature which
has been kept carefully concealed from laymen and scientists alike; but
it is also to be emphasized that nine years of research has failed to disclose
statistically sound data which would justify any objective comparison of
the behavior of any previous generation with the present one. One is
inclined to suspect that the amazement of the older generation at the pres-
ent-day behavior is dependent, at least in part, upon the fact that the older
generation knew very little about the behavior of the world in which it
lived when it was young, and that it has only more recently become
acquainted with the long-established facts of life. Certainly it becomes
highly desirable to confine any statements about trends in sexual behavior
to such generalizations as can be established by statistically adequate data.
We have, therefore, undertaken to make a precise comparison of the
older and younger generations which have contributed to the present
study. We have divided the entire male sample into two groups of more or
less equal size. One group has included all of those persons who were 33
years of age or older at the time they contributed their histories. Its median
age is 43.1 years. The other group has included all the cases of persons who
were younger than 33 at the time of contributing. Its median age is 21.2
years. The difference between the median ages of the two groups is about
396
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
22 years. The older group represents the generation that was in its youth
and therefore sexually most active from 1910 to 1925. These are the indi-
viduals who fought World War I and were responsible for the reputation
of the “roaring twenties.” It is quite generally believed by many people
that this was a period of such sexual laxity as America is supposed never
to have known before (Allen 1931). Nevertheless, this is the generation
that is quite convinced that youth today is still wilder in its behavior. Most
of the younger group used in the present calculation was at its peak of ac-
tivity between 1930 and the present time.
A more precise comparison would involve a successive breakdown of the
population according to the year in which each individual was born, and
a grouping into generations separated by twenty-year spans. This finer
analysis is not possible with the number of histories now at hand, but
should be undertaken as this project expands.
Comparisons of Accumulative Incidences. Tables 98 to 103 and Figures
108 to 121 compare the accumulative incidence data for the older and
younger segments of the population in regard to masturbation, nocturnal
emissions, pre-marital petting experience, petting to the point of orgasm,
total pre-marital intercourse, pre-marital intercourse with prostitutes,
extra-marital intercourse, and the homosexual. Tables 104-105 and Fig-
ures 122-123 show the average frequencies and the active incidences in
comparable age periods and at comparable social levels of the older and
the younger segments of the population.
An examination of the accumulative incidence curves (Figures 108-114)
will show that the number of persons ultimately involved, and the ages at
which they became involved, are almost exactly the same for the older
and the younger generations in the following groups and for the following
types of behavior:
College level — masturbation
College level — nocturnal emissions
College level — heterosexual intercourse
College level — ^total pre-marital intercourse
College level — intercourse with prostitutes
Grade school level — intercourse with prostitutes
College level — homosexual outlet
Comparisons of the accumulative incidence curves (Figures 115, 116)
indicate that the same number of persons is ultimately involved in the
two generations, but that the younger generation appears to become active
a year or two earlier, in the following cases :
Grade school level — heterosexual intercourse
. Grade school level — ^pre-marital intercourse
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
397
Comparisons of the accumulative incidence curves (Figures 117-121)
indicate that more individuals of the younger generation are involved, and
that these individuals begin their activity at an earlier age, in the following
cases :
College level — petting experience
College level — petting to climax
Grade school level — masturbation
Grade school level — nocturnal emissions
Grade school level — petting experience
In general, the sexual patterns of the younger generation are so nearly
identical with the sexual patterns of the older generation in regard to so
many types of sexual activity that there seems to be no sound basis for the
widespread opinion that the younger generation has become more active
in its socio-sexual contacts. The only instances in which a larger number of
the younger generation is involved at an earlier age apply to such activities
(masturbation, nocturnal emissions, and petting) as are not ordinarily
considered when the charge is made that the younger generation is becom-
ing increasingly immoral. The charge more often concerns pre-marital
intercourse with companions and with prostitutes, and homosexual con-
tacts. On all of these latter points, however, the records for the older and
the younger generation are, by the admission of the older generation when
it contributes its own histories, so nearly identical that no significant
differences can be found in the accumulative incidence curves. And as for
the homosexual, if a larger number of the younger generation is becoming
involved, we have failed to find any evidence of it. These questions are of
such social significance that it is high time that scientific data replace the
loose statements and easy conclusions drawn by persons who find some
sort of advantage in bewailing the ways of the world.
It is notable that in those instances where the younger generation seems
to become involved at an earlier age, it is the lower educational level that
is concerned, and this is probably the product of the better sanitation,
better medical care, and better standards of nutrition which have brought
improvements in the general health of that group within the last thirty
years. It will be recalled (Chapter 5) that there is evidence that the younger
generation of the lower social level is becoming adolescent a year or so
sooner than the boys of the same level a generation or two ago. There is
no evidence that the better educated portion of the population is becoming
adolescent any earlier, probably because the upper level was not so poorly
nourished in the past.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the younger generation has materi-
ally modified its behavior only in respect to items (masturbation and pet-
ting) which were first accepted by the upper social levels, whose attitudes
398
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
Educational Level 13 +
masturbation
nocturnal emissions
AGE
1
1
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
382
0.0
2433
0.0
381
0.0
2430
0.0
9
382
0.5
2433
0.3
381
0.0
2430
0,0
10
382
2.9
2433
2.2
381
0.0
2430
0.6
11
382
9.9
2433
8.8
381
3.9
2430
3.0
12
382
22.8
2433
28.6
381
12.9
2430
11.4
13
382
47.9
2433
53.7
381
32.5
2430
28.6
14
382
72.5
2433
72.2
381
57.7
2430
51.3
15
382
78.5
2433
80.5
381
73.5
2430
68.2
16
382
83.2
2432
84.4
381
85.3
2429
80.0
17
382
85.6
2430
87.2
381
89.5
2427
86.7
18
382
88.0
2354
89.1
.381
91.6
2351
90.9
19
382
88.7
2190
90.3
381
92.7
2187
92.6
20
382
90.6
1955
91.2
381
94.2
1952
93.5
21
382
91.1
1649
92.2
381
95.3
1646
94.3
22
382
92.1
1288
93.0
381
95.8
1287
94.4
23
382
92.7
1014
93.6
381
96.1
1014
94.4
24
382
92.7
769
93.4
381
96.9
769
95.2
25
382
93.2
620
94.4
381
97.9
620
95.2
26
382
93.7
502
95.8
381
97.9
502
95.4
27
382
94.5
392
96.2
381
97.9
392
94.6
28
382
94.8
317
95.9
381
97.9
317
95.0
29
382
94.8
252
95.2
381
97.9
252
95.2
30
382
95.3
191
96.3
381
98.4
191
94.8
31
382
95.3
147
95.2
381
98.4
147
94.6
32
‘ 382
95.5
110
95.5
381
98.4
110
94.5
33
382
95.5
66
93.9
381
98.4
66
92.4
Table 98. Comparisons of older and younger generations of the college level:
masturbation, and nocturnal emissions
Accumulative incidence data based on the life span. Median difference of age between
the two generations is 22 years.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
399
seem to have infiltrated into the younger generation of the lower level
today. There is considerable evidence at many other points that ideas and
attitudes may be modified long before there are differences in overt be-
havior, and especially in overt socio-sexual contacts.
Figures 108-109. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations of college level : masturbation, nocturnal emissions
Showing percentage of males with experience at any time in the life-span. Median age
difference between the two generations is 22 years.
Comparisons of Frequencies, In regard to frequencies in each of these
types of sexual activity, the comparisons of the two generations are more
complex. An examination of Table 104 and Figure 122 leads to the follow-
ing generalizations :
1. TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET. The frequencies of total outlet are very close
for the college level of the population among single males at every age
u
400
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
Educational Level 13 +
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
PRE-MARITAL
INTERCOURSE
age
1
1
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
382
0.0
2435
0.0
382
0.0
2435
0.0
9
382
0.0
2435
0.0
382
0.0
2435
0.0
10
382
0.0
2435
0.0
382
0.0
2435
0.0
11
382
0.0
2435
0.2
382
0.0
2435
0.3
12
382
0.5
2345
1.1
382
0.5
2435
1.1
13
382
3.7
2435
3.0
382
3.7
2435
3.0
14
382
6.3
2435
5.9
382
6.3
2435
5.9
15
382
9.4
2435
9.5
382
9.4
2435
9.5
16
382
14.9
2434
15.6
382
14.9
2434
15.6
17
382
21.5
2432
23.4
381
21.3
2431
23.4
18
382
27.2
2356
31.5
381
27.0
2353
31.4
19
382
32.5
2192
39.3
380
31.8
2185
39.0
20
382
40.1
1957
46.8
376
38.8
1932
45.4
21
382
44.5
1651
52.4
369
42.5
1611
50.6
22
382
52.4
1290
60.0
363
48.2
1218
55.8
23
382
58.9
1015
64.5
342
52.9
907
58.4
24
382
66.0
770
70.3
320
55.3
647
61.2
25
382
72.8
620
76.5
292
62.0
469
65.9
26
382
79.3
502
80.7
262
63.0
341
66.9
27
382
82.5
392
82.7
214
64.0
218
66.1
28
382
84.8
317
85.5
185
65.9
144
67.4
29
382
87.4
252
86.5
164
67.7
96
66.7
30
382
89.3
191
90.1
142
69.7
60
63.3
31
382
90.8
147
91.2
123
69.1
32
382
91.9
110
89.1
106
69.8
33
382
92.1
66
84.8
96
69.8
Table 99. Comparisons of older and younger generations of the college level:
total intercourse, and total pre-marital intercourse
Accumulative incidence data. Pre-marital intercourse based on single males, including
intercourse with companions and with prostitutes. Total intercourse based on life span,
including pre-marital, marital, extra-marital, and post-marital relations with companions
and with prostitutes. Median difference of age between the two generations is 22 years.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
401
between adolescence and thirty, and among married males of the college
level between the ages of 21 and 30 (which is as far as the sujBScient data
go).
Among single males of the lower educational levels, the frequencies of
total outlet are rather materially higher for the younger generation at
AGE
Figures 110-111. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations of college level; total and pre-marital intercourse
Data for total intercourse include all coital experience, regardless of marital status'
Median age dijfference between the two generations is 22 years.
every age between adolescence and 30; and they similarly are higher for
the married males of the younger generation at all ages for which there
are sufficient data. The increase in the reported frequency is greatest for
the grade school group, and not so great for the high school group. It is
possible that these data represent a reality— that the younger generation
402
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
AGE
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
EDUC. LEVEL 13-f-
INTERC. WITH PROSTITUTES
EDUC. LEVEL 13-f
INTERC. WITH PROSTITUTES
EDUC. LEVEL 0-8
Older
Gener.
Younger
Generation
Older
Gener.
Younger
Generation
Older
Gener.
Younger
Generation
% with
Cases
% with
%with
Cases
% with
% with
Cases
% with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
8
0.0
2435
0.0
0.0
2434
0.0
0.0
476
0.0
9
0.3
2435
0.0
0.0
2434
0.0
0.0
476
0.0
10
1.3
2435
0.3
0.0
2434
0.0
0.0
476
0.0
11
3.7
2435
1.6
0.0
2434
0.0
0.0
475
0.2
12
7.6
2435
6.0
0.0
2434
0.0
0.6
475
0.6
13
12.6
2435
11.5
0.3
2434
0.1
0.9
475
1.1
14
19.9
2435
17.7
0.5
2434
0.8
4.0
472
3.2
15
23.3
2435
20.8
1.6
2434
2.4
7.7
466
7.5
16
24.3
2434
22.8
4.2
2433
4.9
19.4
447
15.9
17
25.4
2432
23.9
9.7
2431
9.0
30.6
405
25.9
18
27.2
2356
25.3
13.1
2355
13.7
42.6
373
38.3
19
28.5
2192
26.4
15.2
2191
17.8
47.5
333
42.9
20
29.3
1957
27.3
18.3
1956
21,0
51.9
299
47.8
21
29.8
1651
28.3
21.2
1650
22.5
56.8
274
50.4
22
30.9
1290
29.5
24.9
1290
24.9
59.3
243
55.6
23
31.4
1015
31.5
25.7
1015
25.7
61.4
222
55.4
24
32.2
770
32.1
27.0
770
26.5
62.3
198
60.1
25
32.7
620
33.2
28.3
620
28.9
65.7
173
63.6
26
32.7
502
33.1
29.1
502
29.7
66.4
158
67.1
27
32.7
392
34.7
.29.3
392
31.6
67.0
141
68.1
28
33.0
317
35,0
30.6
317
33.8
67.3
126
68.3
29
33.0
252
34.5
31.2
252
33.3
67.9
100
66.0
30
33.8
191
33.5
32.2
191
35.1
70.7
80
66.3
31
33.8
147
35.4
32.2
147
38.8
71.3
58
63.8
32
33.8
no
30.0
32.7
110
37.3
71.3
33
33.8
66
34.8
33.0
66
34.8
71.6
Table 100. Comparisons of older and younger generations : homosexual outlet,
and intercourse with prostitutes
Accumulative incidence data based on total life span, including pre-marital, extra-
marital, and post-marital contacts. Median difference in age between the two
generations is 22 years. In the older generation, for the homosexual data and for the
data on intercourse with prostitutes at “Educ. Level 13-}-'’ there are 382 cases for each
and every age. In the older generation for intercourse with prostitutes at “Educ. Level
0-8” there are 324 cases.
AGE
AGE
Figures 112-114. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations : homosexual outlet, intercourse with prostitutes
All curves based on total life span, irrespective of marital status. The first two figures,
112 and 113, show the homosexual outlet and intercourse with prostitutes for males of
the college level (13-1-). Figure 114 shows intercourse with prostitutes for males of the
grade school level (0-8).
403
404
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
Educational Level 0-8
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
AGE
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
324
0.0
476
0.0
322
0.0
476
0.0
9
324
0.0
476
0.0
322
0.0
476
0.0
10
324
0.3
476
0.0
322
0.3
476
0.0
11
324
0.9
475
1.5
322
0.9
475
1.5
12
324
2.5
475
10.3
322
2.5
475
10.1
13
324
6.2
475
21.1
322
6.2
474
20.9
14
324
20.7
472
35.0
322
20.8
471
34.8
15 j
324
34.3 i
466
51.5
322
34.5
464
51.1
16
324
48.5
447
67.1
322
48.1
443
66.8
17
324
60.8
405
76.3
321
60.4
394
75.1
18
324
74.7
373
83.9
315
73.3
343
81.9
19
324
79.6
333
87.7
296
77.7
287
85.4
20
324
84.9
299
89.6
275
82.2
231
86.6
21
324
88.0
274
90.5
252
83.7
192
85.9
22
324
91.4
243
91.8
215
83.3
142
85.9
23
324
92.6
222
92.3
177
85.9
115
85.2
24
324
94.4
198
95.5
161
86.3
94
89.4
25
324
96.0
173
95.4
144
90.3
72
88.9
26
324
96.9
158
96.2
122
91.8
62
88.7
27
324
97.8
141
96.5
112
92.0
54
90.7
28
324
98.1
126
96.0
98
93.9
29
324
98.1
100
' 95.0
86
93.0
30
324
98.5
80
95.0
80
93.8
31
324
98.8
58
93.1
73
94.5
32
324
98.8
71
94.4
33
324
98.8
67
94.0
34
324
98.8
67
94.0
Table 101. Comparisons of older and younger generations of grade school level:
total intercourse, and total pre-marital intercourse
Accumulative incidence data for pre-marital intercourse based on single males, in-
cluding intercourse with companions and with prostitutes. Data for total intercourse
based on life span, including pre-marital, marital, extra-marital, and post-marital rela-
tions with companions and with prostitutes.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
405
of the lower level is actually more active, again because of its improved
nutrition. On the other hand, it is to be noted that older individuals of these
lower educational levels, especially of the grade school group, are often in
very poor condition physically and jnentally by the time they reach 45 or
50 years of age, and their reports of past events are not as reliable as those
AGE
Figures 115-116. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations of grade school level : total and pre-marital intercourse
The first figure, 1 15, is based on the total male population, irrespective of the marital
status, and shows the percentage of males with any coital experience. Figure 116 shows
the percentage of single males with experience in pre-marital intercourse.
of the teen-age boys. Again, it is not impossible that there is more cover-
up among older males of a generation in which the social pretense appears
to have departed further from the actual behavior than it does today. It
will take a larger sample than we yet have to enable final analysis to be
made of these data.
406
3EXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
Educational Level 13 +
1 TOTAL petting EXPERIENCE
i . _
PETTING TO CLIMAX
age
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Older
Generation
Younger
Generation
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
381
0.0
2433
0.0
306
0.0
1290
0.0
9
381
0.0
2433
0.0
306
0.0
1290
0.0
10
381
0.3
2433
0.3
306
0.0
1290
0.0
11
381
i 0.8
2433
1.4
306
0.0
1290
0.0
12
381
3.7
2433
6.1
306
0.7
1290
0.2 .
13
381
12,9
2433
17.6
306
2.9
1290
1.3
14
381
25.5
2433
35.0
306
4.2
1290 j
4.0
15
381
36.5
2433
48.9
306
6.9
1290 1
8.4
16
381
47.8
2432
66.7
306
13.4
1290
16.0
17
380
55.8
2429
78.4
305
19.3
1288
23.9
18
380
64.7
2351
85.8
305
24.6
1229
32.8
19
379
71.8
2183
90.4
305
31.5
1169
40.2
20
375
75.7
1930
92.7
304
37.2
1085
48.5
21
368
77.4
1609
93.7
299
41.5
941
52.8
22
362
80.4
1217
94.3
294
44.2
753
56.2
23
341
83.3
906
94.2
281
44.8
591 i
59.2
24
319
86.5
646
94.3
264
48.1
424
61.3
25
291
86.9
468
95.7
240
53.3
303
62.0
26
261
88.9
340
95.3
216
56.0
221
65.2
27
213
87.3
217
94.9
177
55.9
144
57.6
28
184
86.4
144
93.1
153
56.9
102
55.9
29
163
87.1
96
93.8
137
59.9
67
58.2
30
141
87.2
60
93.3
115
59.1
31
123
86.2
99
59.6
32
106
84.9
i
86
58.1
33
96
83.3
80
57.5
Table 102. Comparisons of older and younger generations of college level: total
petting experience, and petting to climax
Accumulative incidence data based on single males.
2. MASTURBATION. Among males of the college level, and among all
but the youngest group of high school males, frequencies of masturbation
in the two generations are, again, close. However, for the younger genera-
tions of the lower educational levels they are distinctly higher. There
seems in actuahty to be a greater utilization of masturbation in these lower
levels today.
3. NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS. The frequencies of nocturnal emissions as
recorded by both upper and lower educational groups are nearly identical
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
407
Figures 117-118. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations of college level : petting
The first figure, 117, shows the data for any kind of petting experience. Figure 118
shows petting experience to the point of orgasm. Median age difference between the two
generations is 22 years.
in every age group. If one notes that the older group had to recall the events
of a period which extended, on an average, over 22 years more than the
younger groups were recalling, it is all the more impressive to secure such
similar results.
4. PETTING. Petting to climax shows a slight increase in frequency for
all social levels in the younger age groups, when the calculation is based
upon the total populations in each group. The frequencies are still more
nearly identical when the calculations are based upon the persons who are
actively involved.
408
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Accumulative Incidence, Two Generations
Educational Level 0-8
age
MASTURBATION
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
PETTING EXPERIENCE
Older
Gener.
Younger
Generation
Older
Gener.
Younger
Generation
Older I
Generation
Younger
Generation
% with
Cases
% with
1 % with
Cases
%with
Cases
% with
Cases
% with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
8
0.0
476
0.0
0.0
476
0.0
320
0.0
476
0.0
9
0.0
476
0.2
0.0
476
0.0
320
0.0
476
0.0
10
0.0
476
1.5
0.0
476
0.0
320
0.3
476
0.0
11
1.2
475
4.6
0.0
475
0.6
320
0.9
475
1.7
12
8.7
475
20.4
0.9
475
1.3
320
3,4
475
10.7
13
23.0
475
44.0
1.6
475
5.1
320
8.4
474
27.0
14
49.7
472
70.1
9.7
472
13.8
320
25.3
471
45.9
15
67.4
466
86.7
23.2
466
28.3
320
40.3
464
62.7
16
77.3
447
91.9
35.1
447
42.7
320
54.4
443
75.2
17
80.7
405
93.1
40.8
405
52.8
319
64.6
394
81.0
18
84.2
373
94.9
50.8
373
61.7
314
72.6
343
85.4
19
85.1
333
94.6
53.3
333
66.1
295
74.9
287
87.5
20
85.4
299
95.0
58.6
299
70.9
274
78.8
231
86.1
21
85.4
274
95.3
59.9
274
73.4
251
79.3
192
88.0
22
85.4
243
95.5
61.4
243
77.0
214
78.5
142
88.7
23
85.4
222
95.9
62.4
222
79.7
176
77.8
115
87.8
24
85.7
198
96.5
63.3
198
82.8
160
78.8
94
90.4
25
86.0
173
96.5
65.8
173
83.2
143
80.4
72
90.3
26
86.0
158
96.2
66.8
158
84.2
121
78.5
62
88.7
27
86.0
141
96.5
67.4
141
85.1
111
77.5
54
88.9
28
86.0
126
96.0
69.3
126
83.3
98
77.6
29
86.3
100
95.0
70.2
100
86.0
86
75.6
30
86.3
80
95.0
72.1
80
86.3
80
76.3
31
86.3
58
93.1
72.1
58
86.2
73
76.7
32
86.3
72.7
71
76.1
33
86.3
73.0
67
74.6
34
86.3
73.4
67
76.1
Table 103. Comparisons of older and younger generations of grade school level:
masturbation, nocturnal emissions, and heterosexual petting
Accumulative incidence data for masturbation and nocturnal emissions based on the
life span. Data for petting experience, with or without climax, based on single males.
Data for older generation on masturbation are based on 322 cases, on nocturnal emis-
sions on 319 cases, at each and every age.
MASTURBATION
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
20 25 30 35
A6E
0=0 OLDER
■ ^ lii qi YOUNGER I
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS -
I EDUC LEVEL 0-8
10 15
20 25
AGE
0=0 OLDER
YOUNGER
PETTING EXPERIENCE
EDUC LEVEL 0-8
Figures 119-121. Comparisons of accumulative incidence for older and younger
generations of grade school level: masturbation, nocturnal emissions, petting
The first two figures, 119 and 120, show masturbation and nocturnal emissions dur-
ing the life span. Figure 121 shows any kind of pre-marital petting experience.
409
educational
LEVEL
Comparisons of Frequencies in Two Generations
Mean Frequencies for Total Population
AGE
GROUP
OLDER
GENER.
YOUNG.
GENER.
OLDER YOUNG.
GENER. GENER.
OLDER
GENER.
YOUNG.
GENER.
OLDER
GENER.
YOUNG.
GENER.
Single Males
Outlet
No, of cases
Total outlet
Masturbation
Nocturn. emiss.
Educ. level 0-8
Adol.-15
315
397
2.07 3.77
1.07
1.94
0.05
0.06
16-20
346
374
2.31 4.05
0.78
1.08
0.13
0.17
21-25
229
132
2.35 4.53
0.59
0.69
0.12
0.21
Educ. level 9-12
Adol.-15
144
462
2.49 3.61
1.58
2.04
0.13
0.15
16-20
146
461
2.82 3.76
1.15
1.35
0.20
0.23
21-25
109
154
2.41 3.42
0.70
0.98
0.21
0.25
Educ. level 13+
AdoL-15
462
2337
2.76 2.84
1.97
2,27
0.44
0.32
16-20
476
2385
2.69 2.70
1.71
1.81
0.49
0.41
21-25
456
1442
2.57 2.47
1.30
1.31
0.41
0.38
26-30
269
218
2.68 2.43
1.24
1.09
0.34
0.27
Petting
to climax
Single Males
Total pre-
marit. interc.
Interc. with
prostitutes
Homosexual
Educ. level 0-8 |
Adol.-15
16-20
21-25
Educ. level 9-12
Adol.-15
16-20
21-25
Educ. level 13+
AdoL-15
16-20
21-25
26-30
0.47 0.94
1.17 1.58
1.13 1.33
0.12 0.07
0.28 0.27
0.58 0.45
0.81 0.62
Married Males
Outlet
No, of cases
Total outlet
Marit. interc.
Extra-marit.
interc.
Educ. level 0-8
16-20
75 ^
83
3.75
5.50
3.07
4.35
0.37
0.69
21-25
204
120
3.08
5.61
2.70
4.28
0.19
1.04
2<^30
227 ;
65
3.02
5.22
2.65
4.21
0.16
0.61
Educ. level 9-12
21-25
71
93
3.89
4.35
3.24
3.43
0.37
0.50
26-30
83
52
3.43
3.76
2,76
3.07
0.32
0.32
Educ. level 13+
21-25
144
296
3.86
3.62
3.25
2.98
0.16
0.04
26-30
317
215
3.33
2.99
2.76
2.40
0.12
0.05
Tablet 104. Comparisons of mean frequencies of sexual activities in older and
younger generations
Median difference of age between the two groups is 22 years.
410
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
411
5. PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS. AmOUg males of the
Upper educational levels, coitus before marriage occurs with frequencies
that are, again, duplicates for the two generations. The only marked
differences come in early adolescence, where the record is rather materially
higher for the younger generation. For pre-marital intercourse at lower
educational levels, the younger generation reports definitely higher fre-
quencies in every age group, although the differences are more marked
for the younger ages. As noted above, this increased activity among
younger males of the lower educational level is apparently correlated with
the earlier maturation of the boys of that group in the present day; but all
of these lower level data may be affected by the poor memory of the older
men who supply the record for the older group.
MASTURBATION
EDUC
LEVEL
OLDER
0-8
YOUNGER
OLDER
9-12
YOUNGER
OLDER
13-#-
YOUNGER
TOTAL PRE-MARITAL
INTERCOURSE
(' '
INTERCOURSE WITH
PROSTITUTES
Figure 122. Comparisons of frequencies of sexual activity in older and younger
generations
Comparisons of mean frequencies for males 16-20 years of age, showing data for
masturbation, total pre-marital intercourse, and intercourse with prostitutes, for three
educational levels. Median age difference between the two generations is 22 years.
6. PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES. The frequencies of pre-
marital sexual relations with prostitutes are more or less constantly lower
in the younger generations of all educational levels. There are no excep-
tions to be observed in Table 104. In most cases the average frequencies
of intercourse with prostitutes are down to two-thirds or even to one-
half of what they were in the generation that was most active 22 years ago.
This is undoubtedly the result of the extensive educational campaigns
which have associated the prostitute with venereal disease, and of the legal
drives which have been made against organized prostitution. In the 22-year
period which has elapsed between the two generations which are involved
here, most of the state laws against prostitution have come into existence
or have been considerably strengthened. In particular localities, there has
been an increasing public interest in controlling organized prostitution.
EDUCATIONAL
LEVEL
AND
Comparisons of Incidences in Two Generations
Percents of Total Population Involved
AGE
GROUP
OLDER
gener.
young,
gener. I
OLDER young.
gener. gener.
OLDER YOUNG.
gener. GENFR.
OLDER
GENER.
YOUNG.
GENER.
Single Males
Outlet
No. of cases
' Total outlet
Masturbation
Nocturr
1 . emiss.
Educ. level 0-8
Adol.-15
315
397
85.4 96.0
76.8 90.9
22.9
27.5
16-20
346
374
96.2 98.7
78.0 90.4
55.2
57.5
21-25
229
132
96.1 97.7
59.4 67.4
57.6
62.9
Educ. level 9-12
AdoL-15
144
462
92.4 96.3
84.7 91.6
1 41.0
39.2
16-20
146
461
100.0 99.6
84.9 90.2
69.2
71.1
21-25
109
154
98.2 100.0
67.0 83.1
70.6
71.4
Educ. level 13+
AdoL-15
462
2337
95.5 95.8
80.3 82.8
72.7
69.3
16-20
476
2385
99.8 99.7
85.7 89.2
92.2
91.0
21-25
456
1442
99.6 99.9
83.6 88.1
90.1
86.1
26-30
269
218
99.6 100.0
81.0 85.8
86.6
83.5
Single Males
Outlet
Petting
to climax
i Interc. with
companions
Interc. with
prostitutes
Homosexual
Educ. level 0-8
Adol.-15
6.7
18.6
37.1
57.4
9.8 7.8
17.1
29.0
16-20
13.0
28.9
74.3
87.7
51.7 44.9
17.9
33.7
21-25
11.4
22.7
72.5
87.9
65.5 52.3
16.6
32.6
Educ. level 9-12
Adol.-15
12.5
21.6
31.3
47.2
9.7 7.4
23.6
35.3
16-20
32.2
34.9
71.2
73.8
45.2 40.1
26.7
45.3
21-25
32.1
26.0
73.4
68.8
54.1 36.4
29.4
43.5
Educ. level 13+
Adol.-15
9.7
14.6
9.3
9.3
1.7 2.4
25.1
20.8
16-20
39.3
47.1
37.0
39.2
18.7 19.4
16.4
15.9
21-25
51.8
51.9
56.4
54.1
23.7 15.1
12.7
8.5
26-30 1
46.1
42.7
59.9
55.5
20.4 11.5
16.4
18.3
Married Males
Outlet
No. of cases
Total outlet
Marit. interc.
Extra-mant.
interc.
Educ. level 0-8
16-20
75
83
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
32.0
55.4
21-25
204
120
100.0
100.0
99.5
99.2
27.9
45.0
26-30
227
65
100.0
96.9
100.0
96.9
32.2
44.6
Educ. level 9-12
21-25
71
93
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
36.6
46.2
26-30
83
52
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
38.6
53.8
Educ. level 13+
21-25
144
296
100.0
100.0
98.6
100.0
18.8
13.2
26-30
317
215
100.0
100.0
99.1
99.5
24.3
18.1
Table 105. Comparisons of incidences of sexual activities in older and younger
generations
Median difference of age between the two groups is 22 years.
412
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
413
There is no doubt that the openly run organized house of prostitution has
thereby been eliminated in a great many instances, although our specific
data make it doubtful that the number of girls involved in prostitution has
been very much decreased. As indicated above (Table 100, Figures 1 13, 1 14),
the number of males going to prostitutes at some time in their lives seems
not to have been affected by these restrictive measures, but the frequency
data do indicate that they do not return as often as they did before these
educational and legal moves were made against prostitution.
7. TOTAL PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE. Comparing frequencies among the
older and the younger generations, the sum total of the pre-marital inter-
course which is had with companions and with prostitutes today remains
about the same in the college level, has definitely increased in the grade
school group, and has somewhat increased in the high school group. The
EPUC
L€V£L
OLDER
0-8
YOUNGER
OLDER
9-12
YOUNGER
OLDER
134 ^
YOUNGER
Figure 123. Comparisons of active incidence data for older and younger
generations
Data for the age period 16-20. Median age difference between the two generations is
22 years.
drives against prostitution have succeeded in diverting a third to a half of
the intercourse that males used to have with prostitutes to pre-marital
activities with other girls.
8. HOMOSEXUAL OUTLETS. Frequencies in the homosexual show, on the
whole, very little change in older age groups of the two generations
(Table 104 and other data not in the table). In the youngest adolescent
period there seems to be a definite increase in frequencies for the younger
groups, but after 16 or 20 years of age there are no constant changes. There
are particular educational levels at particular ages where the younger
generation seems to be more active, and there are other groups where the
older generation seems to have had the lead. There is, at best, only a slight
substantiation for the oft-repeated assertion that “sexual perversion” is on
the increase. It is difficult to understand what sufficient basis there can be
414
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
for that opinion. It cannot be due to any increase in the obvious public
display of homosexuality; for if there is one change between generations
which is certainly established by the data, it is to the effect that public
displays were more frequent in an older day. Certainly the police in many
of the larger cities have made particular efforts to reduce street and tavern
exhibitions of such activity. Evidently many individuals of the older genera-
tion were unaware of the extent of homosexual activity during their
younger years. It is possible that the freer discussion of the homosexual
today, both in technical and in popular print, has made the public more
conscious of sexual activity that has always been a part of the pattern of
the human animal.
9. MARITAL INTERCOURSE. One would presume that the frequencies of
marital intercourse should show no material differences between the two
generations, and nothing in the data on the high school and college levels
would give any reason for believing that such changes have really occurred.
If there is any real change, it is in the direction of increased frequencies of
marital intercourse among males of the grade school level.
10. EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE. In the grade school and high school
segments of the population, both the frequencies and the incidences of
extra-marital intercourse are higher in the younger generation, at least
during the early years of marriage. For the college group, on the other hand,
the older generation has much the higher frequencies and somewhat higher
incidences. There are too few cases where the samples are of sufficient size
to make the results certain.
These comparisons of the sexual activities of older and younger genera-
tions provide striking evidence of the stability of the sexual mores. They
provide scant justification for the opinion harbored by some persons that
there are constant changes in such mores, or at least a constant flux — per-
haps an “evolution” toward something better, or a constant degeneration
in behavior.
Some persons have expressed a fear that a long-time sex study of the
sort in which we are currently engaged will fall into error if it averages
histories obtained early in the study with histories obtained ten or twenty
years later. There are persons who have regretted the fact that it was not
possible to complete this study before World War II. They indicate that it
is not correct to compare data obtained before the war and data obtained
since, for patterns change so much in times of war and during post-war
adjustments that we probably should begin the study anew. Not only do
the press, propaganda agencies, and moral and law enforcement groups
encourage this notion, but scientists have been inclined to accept it. There
are persons who have suggested that we should rule out all histories of men
who have been in the armed forces, inasmuch as their patterns of behavior
have, inevitably, been so changed that they are no longer representative of
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
415
a peace-time population. There are persons who have thought that the
publication of the present volume might so affect the patterns of behavior
for whole segments of the population that we could no longer find histories
that would be representative of the conditions that existed before these
data were made available. There are more persons who have thought that
it would be important for us to get re-takes on histories of subjects who
had previously given histories— not for the sake of testing the validity of
memory and the extent of the cover-up (as we have in actuality used such
re-takes), but for the sake of recording the presumably great changes in
behavior that must follow such discussions of sexual matters as are involved
in the contribution of one’s history.
These persons do not seem to have realized the ancient origins of our
current patterns and their deep foundations in the basic thinking of each
cultural group. We have repeatedly pointed out that many of our present-
day attitudes on sex are matters which were settled in the religious phil-
osophy of the authors of the Old Testament and even among more ancient
peoples, and there is no evidence that scientific analyses will quickly
modify such deep-rooted behavior.
The changes that have occurred in 22 years, as measured by the data
given in the present chapter, concern attitudes and minor details of
behavior, and nothing that is deeply fundamental in overt activity. There
has been nothing as fundamental as the substitution of one type of outlet
for another, of masturbation for heterosexual coitus, of coitus for the
homosexual, or vice versa. There has not even been a material increase or
decrease in the incidences and frequencies of most types of activity. In
these 20 to 30 years, there appear to have been as material social changes
as in any period of history. The expansion of manufactured utilities, the
extension of means of locomotion and of all types of communication, the
increase in educational programs, the political upheavals, the changes of
attitude on matters of religion, have been extreme in this period. There
have been two wars on such a world-wide scale as has never before been
known. Twice in this period a high percentage of the young men of the
country was drafted into military service and brought into contact with
the sexual patterns of persons representing the full range of social levels in
our own nation, and with the sexual patterns of many of the other nations
of the world. Following these two wars there have been periods in which
many persons thought they saw unprecedented moral breakdowns. There
have been periods of wild inflation, the jazz age, periods of prosperity,
periods of depression. Millions of dollars have been spent by certain organi-
zations for the express purpose of changing the sexual habits of the nation.
This period has seen much new legislation on matters of sex. For the first
time in American history, Federal agents have been used to enforce sex
laws on a national scale. And the sum total of the measurable effects on
416
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
American sexual behavior are slight changes in attitudes, some increase in
the frequency of masturbation among boys of the lower educational levels,
more frequent nocturnal emissions, increased frequencies of pre-marital
petting, earlier coitus for a portion of the male population, and the trans-
ference of a percentage of the pre-marital intercourse from prostitutes to
girls who are not prostitutes.
There is not even evidence that patterns of sexual behavior are materially
altered among men in the armed forces during a period of war. Precise
calculations will have to come later, but the available data now indicate
that it is a small portion of the men who go into the Army or the Navy
who materially modify their patterns of behavior after they leave home.
The data are conclusive that such patterns in the case of the male are
largely established by the age of 16, and no sort of circumstance, however
catastrophic, materially alters them for more than a very few persons in
their later years. It is true that many a man has had his first experience in
heterosexual coitus after he got into the armed forces; but most of these
men would have begun coitus at about that age if they had stayed at home.
The men who have the most coitus after getting into the armed forces are,
for the most part, the men who would have had the most coitus if they had
stayed at home. The men who find most of their war-time coitus with pros-
titutes are the men who would have found most of their experience with
prostitutes at home; and the men who avoid prostitutes in the Army avoid
them for the same reasons that they would have avoided them at home.
The public is much more conscious of the behavior of a man in uniform
than it is of a man in civilian clothes. The civilian who walks down the
street with a girl does not attract nearly so much attention as the uniformed
male who walks down the same street with the same girl. The high officer
who complained that too many mothers thought that the Army had in-
vented sex had considerable justification for his complaint.
There is a ready assumption that men in segregated groups, as in the
Army and the Navy, turn to the homosexual more often than they would
at home; but it is to be recalled that the active incidence of the homosexual
in the peace-time U. S. population among men of Army and Navy age is
nearly 30 per cent (Table 90), and one would have to show that the incidence
among men in the Army and the Navy is higher than that, or that the fre-
quencies of contact are higher, in order to prove that patterns for these men
had been changed in any way. There are, of course, men who have their
first homosexual experience while in the Army or the Navy, but there are
men of the same age who would have had their first experience at home
if there had never been a war.
Similarly, the married men in the armed forces turn to extra-marital
intercourse, or avoid extra-marital intercourse, largely in accord with the
patterns that have guided their behavior previously in their lives.
StABILlTY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
417
Patterns of sexual behavior may persist in a social group even though
many persons may move into it from other groups that have totally differ-
ent patterns of behavior (Table 106). Twenty-five or thirty years ago, about
5 per cent of the American males went to college. The 1940 census shows
about 1 5 per cent of the males of this younger generation receiving such
advanced education. In the 22 years which have elapsed between our older
and younger generations, the college population has increased three times.
But in spite of the fact that the original college population has been
enlarged by a group twice as large as its original self, the college pattern of
sexual behavior has remained practically unchanged. In fact, the nearest
identities between the older and the younger generations (Tables 98-105)
are at this college level. This is a remarkable tribute to the stability of the
sexual mores.
With the return of the veterans from the recent war, and with the sub-
sidization of their education from public funds, there has come such a
sudden invasion of the college group as has never before been known. The
research investigator concerned with human behavior today needs to be
especially careful to understand the background of the college student
whom he is interviewing. Many of the veterans who are now attending
college would have done so if there had been no war, and this is the group
which, by and large, has sexual histories of the sort that have been reported
here for the college level. But there are many others who would never have
gone beyond high school except for the present governmental program.
Many males of this group are contributing histories of a sort which is not
usually found within college halls. There are high frequencies of pre-
marital intercourse with large numbers of companions. There are lower
level attitudes about masturbation in this group. What will the outcome be
upon the patterns of sexual behavior among college levels? Will this
sudden influx of lower level patterns overwhelm the traditions of the upper
level groups? Will the lower level individuals have their patterns changed
by their college contacts? Certainly no scientist could have conceived a
more remarkable experiment for testing the effect of the intermingling of
social groups. We have found that patterns are largely determined by the
time of adolescence or at some still earlier age. We find (as reported later
in this chapter) that, in such migrations as do occur between social levels,
the changes in patterns do not come in the lifetime of an individual, but
by way of the next generation. In the light of these considerations, it will
be interesting to observe what the outcome of this GI invasion of the
colleges may be.
VERTICAL MOBILITY: AT AN EARLY AGE
There are, of course, persons who are born into one social level and who
move into some other level or levels in the course of their lives. Sorokin
(1927) and other writers in the social sciences have referred to this as social
418
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
or vertical mobility. Increasingly common instances are to be found today
in lower level homes from which children go on to high school and in some
cases to college. As noted in the previous chapter, such an improvement of
social position has been an increasingly common phenomenon for some
decades now in this country. The data (Table 106) show that about 39
per cent of the subjects in the present study have stayed in the same occupa-
tional class as their parents, 21 per cent of the population regressed to
occur.
CLASS
Occupational Class of Parent
OF
SUBJECT
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
CLASS OF
SUBJECT
2
%
56
/o
21
7o
6
%
3
%
1
%
0
%
0
430
3
29
44
23
11
1
1
2
609
4
4
7
14
5
1
0
0
162
5
6
14
24
28
16
9
7
500
6
3
7 '
17
24 ‘
40
23
24
556
7
2
7
16
29
40
65
46
671
8
0
0
0
0
1
2
21
17
Total %
100
100
100
100
100
100
100 !
2945
Cases in pa-
rental class
419
673
485
566
567
193
42
2945
CASES IN
OCCUP.
Table 106. Stability and mobility of occupational classes
Showing (in bold face) percent of each parental class whose male offspring stay within
the same class. And showing (in regular type) what percent of the offspring of each
parental class moves into other occupational classes. Parental classes represent all rat-
ings held by parent while subject lived in the home. Subject classes represent only the
highest ratmg ever held by subject up to time of reporting.
occupational classes lower than those in which their parents raised them,
and 40 per cent have risen to social positions superior to those held by their
parents. There is, obviously, a considerable shifting of occupational classes
and social position in our American society, and it is of interest to know
how sexual patterns are affected when such changes occur in social classes.
Two sorts of situations are involved. The first includes those cases where
the subject breaks with the parental patterns while he is stiU Hving with
his parents. This is much the commoner sort of case, accounting for nearly
all of the movement of the 61 per cent of the population which does not
stay in its parental class. On tWs type of case we have an abundance of
data.
The second type is one in which the individual stays within his parental
class until some later time in his life, at least until his late teens, and only
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
419
finally moves into some other occupational group. This is the rarer type of
case. Consequently there are only a few instances of this sort on which we
can draw for illustration. It is unwarranted, at the present time, to attempt
statistical analyses of these few data.
From the tabulations in Tables 107 to 114, it is possible to compare the
sexual histories of males who have stayed in the parental occupational
class with the histories of males who have moved out of the parental class
into some other group which is either higher or lower. In Table 115 it is
possible to compare the sexual histories of males who have arrived at the
same occupational class, even though the parents of these several males
belonged to a variety of occupational classes.
In general, it will be seen that the sexual history of the individual accords
with the pattern of the social group into which he ultimately moves, rather
than with the pattern of the social group to which the parent belongs and
in which the subject was placed when he lived in the parental home. Indi-
viduals originating from different parental classes have much the same
histories, if they ultimately arrive at the same occupational rating. A half
dozen persons who come from the same parental occupational class may
have a half dozen difierent sorts of histories if they finally locate in that
many different classes. These statements are, of course, based on averages
for whole groups, and it may be anticipated that particular individuals in
each and every one of these groups will depart from any average. Neverthe-
less, so many individuals do fit into this general description that the means
and medians calculated for these several populations are quite distinct.
The most significant thing shown by these calculations (Tables 107-115)
is the evidence that an individual who is ever going to depart from the
parental pattern is hkely to have done so by the time he has become
adolescent. (See Chapter 5 on pre-adolescent sexual development.) In com-
paring the sexual histories with the educational backgrounds of each indi-
vidual (Chapter 10), we have already reached the conclusion that the
patterns of behavior are largely laid down by age 16, and that relatively few
persons change their patterns of behavior at any later time in their lives.
Now the analyses made for the occupational classes of the parent and the
subject fully and abundantly confirm this generalization. The patterns of
the several occupational classes are remarkably distinct in the group that is
16 to 20 years of age. It is evident that a high proportion of the individuals
are conforming to the general pattern. Between adolescence and 15 years
of age, the groups are not yet as distinct. Nevertheless, it is amazing that
distinctions are at all evident in these early adolescent years. These facts
have considerable scientific and social significance.
Unfortunately, analyses that are based upon frequencies of orgasm do
not provide a basis for measuring pre-adolescent activity. It will, however,
be of the utmost significance to obtain a considerable number of histories
420
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
OCCUR.
Total Outlet and Occupational Class
1
AGE
GROtJP
CLASS
REACHED
BY
CASES
total population
active population
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
Adol.-15
2
231
2.71 =t0.19
1.83
95.7
2.83 ±0.19
1.92
3
126
2.68 ±0.30
1.40
90.5
2.96 ±0.33
1.69
16-20
2
198
3.08 ±0.18
2.36
99.5
3.10±0.18
2.38
3
116
3.46 ±0.37^
2.11
; 99.1
3.49 ±0.37
2.14
21-25
2
92
2.50 ±0.24
1.89 1
98.9
2.53 ±0.24
1.93
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
140
2.67
±0.27
1.73
91.4
2.92 ±0.291
1.95
3
384
3.10
±0.18
1.95
93.0
3.33 ±0.19 1
2.20
5
205
2.85
±0.19
2.06
95.1
2.99 ±0.19
2.19
6
+
7
92
2.88
±0.30
2.19
96.7
2.97 ±0.30
2.28
16-20
2
138
2.85
±0.24
2.20
97.1
2.93 ±0.24
2.30
3
318
3.50
±0.21
2.45
98.1
3.57 ±0.21
2.51
5
201
2.88
±0.20
2.05
99.5
2.89 ±0.20
2.06
6
+
7
94
3.12
±0.26
2.54
98.9
3.15 ±0.26
2.57
21^25
2
64
2.45
±0.41
1.55
98.4
2.49 ±0.42
1.60
3
120
3.41
±0.41
2.07
97.5
3.50 ±0.42
2.14
5
124
2.73
±0.22
1.93
99.2
2.75 ±0.22
1.95
6
+
7
87
2.67
±0.20
2.40
100.0
2.67 ±0.20
2.40
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
3.62 ±0.35
2.50
95.3
3.80 ±0.35
2.68
4
158
2.56 ±0.21
1.85
94.3
2.71 ±0.21
1.95
5
304
3.00 ±0.17
2.29
94.1
3.18 ±0.17
2.49
6
109
2.85 ±0.25
2.36
96.3
2.96 ±0.25
2.50
7
74
3.14 ±0.39
1.96
97.3
3.23 ±0.40
2.06
16-20
3
105
3.82 ±0.34
2.64
99.0
3.86 ±0.34
2.68
4
104
2.73 ±0.24
2.09
100.0
2.73 ±0.24
2.09
5
305
2.97 ±0.16
2.36
99.0
3.00±0.16
2.40
6
111
3.01 ±0.24
2.32
100.0
3.01 ±0.24
2.32
7
75
3.23 ±0.32
2.43
100.0
3.23 ±0.32
2.43
21-25
5
183
2.86 ±0.22
2.09
99.5
2.87 ±0.22
2.10
6
98
2.55 ±0.21
1.94
100.0
2.55 ±0.21
1.94
7
71
2.51 ±0.23
2.00
100.0
2.51 ±0.23
2.00
{Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
421
Total Outlet and Occupational Class
occur.
CLASS
REACHED
BY j
SUBJECT
1
1
AGE
CASES
1 TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
GROUP
s
Mean
Median
!
Incid.
Mean
Median
Frequency
Freq.
0/
/o
Frequency
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
Adol.-15
3
65
3.38 ±0.48
2.33
93.8
3.60 ±0.49
2.50
5
563
2.77 ±0.10
2.21
94.1
2.95 ±0.11
2.37
6
228
2.86 ±0.21
2.15
95.6
2.99 ±0.22
2.26
7
152
2.70 ±0.23
1.81
95.4
2.83 ±0.24
1.96
16-20
3
64
3.03 ±0.42
2.42
95.3
3.17 ±0.43
2.56
5
516
2.63 ±0.10
2.05
99.0
2.65 ±0.10
2.08
6
230
2.72 ±0.16
1.98
99.6
2.73 ±0.16
1.98
7
155
2.50±0.17
1.89
100.0
2.50 ±0.17
1.89
21-25
5
262
2.32±0.13
1.76
99.2
2.33 ±0.13
1.78
6
178
2.56 ±0.18
1.86
100.0
2.56 ±0.18
1.86
7
143
2.43 ±0.18
1.84
100.0
2.43 ±0.18
1.84
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
5
98
3.76 ±0.34
3.03
98.0
3.84 ±0.34
3.09
6
1048
2.86 ± 0.09
2.29
96.2
2.97 ±0.09
2.41
7
244
3.00 ±0.22
1 2.07
98.4
3.05 ±0.22
2.13
16-20
5
100
3.80±0.31
3.19
99.0
3.84 ±0.31
3.22
6
1021
2.58 ±0.07
2.11
99.7
2.58 ±0.07
2.12
7
246
3.18 ±0.19
2.66
100.0
3.18 ±0.19
2.66
21-25
5
71
3.13 ±0.32
2.86
98.6
3.17 ±0.32
2.89
6
5^
2.38 ±0.08
1.88
100.0
2.38 ±0.08
1.88
7
236
2.88 ±0.19
2.03
100.0
2.88 ±0.19
2.03
26-30
6
103
2.34 ±0.21
1.73
100.0
2.34 ±0.21
1.73
7
97
2.90 ±0.38
1.89
100.0
2.90 ±0.38
1.89
Married
3.73 ±0.27
2.97
21-25
6
113
3.73 ±0.27
2.97
100.0
7
76
4.41 ±0.40
3.71
100.0
4.41 ±0.40
3.71
26-30
6
112
3.11 ±0.27
2.48
100.0
3.11 ±0.27
2.48
7 1
135
3.54 ± 0.25
2.97 !
100.0
3.54 ±0.25
2.97
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15 J
7
414
3.05 ± 0.14
2.46
96.6
3.16 ±0.14
2.54
16-20
7
416
3.04 ± 0.13
2.49
99.8
3.04 ±0.13
2.50
21-25
7
266
2.71 ± 0.15
2.09
100.0
2.71 ±0.15
2.09
Mart ied
21-25
7
63
3.64 ± 0.26
3.27
100.0
3.64 ± 0.26
3.27
26-30
7
72
i
3.46 ± 0.24
3.17
100.0 i
3.46 ±0.24
3.17
Table 107. Total outlet in relation to occupational class of parent and of subject
AH data based on single males, except where indicated as "‘married.”
422
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Masturbation and Occupational Class
OCCUP.
!
— ’
CLASS
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
7oOf
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
AdoL-15
2
231
1.47 0.11
0.91
56.07
89.6
1.65 =i=0.12
1.04
3
126
1.40=5=0.15
0.90
53.07
87.3
1.60=i=0.16
1.18
16-20
2
198
1.15^0.10
0.63
38.06
84.8
1.36=5=0.11
0.83
3
116
1.01 =i= 0.12
0.48
28.95
89.7
1.13 =5=0.13
0.65
21-25
2
92
0.72^0.10
0.33
29.86
72.8
0.99 =5=0.13
0.58
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adoi.-15
2
140 !
1.61
zii
0.18
0.84
61.87
86.4
1.87
=k
0.20
1.04
3
384
1.57
db
0.10
0.95
51.99
88.8
1.77
=fc
0.10
1.16
5
205
2.07
=fc
0.17
1.38
73.84
82.4
2.52
d=
0.18
1.80
6
4-
7
92
2.25
=b
0.26
1.61
81.23
83.7
2.69
=b
0.29
2.11
16-20
2
138
0.99
0.12
0.43
35.15
83.3
1.19
0.14
0.61
3
318
1.00
d=
0.07
0.48
29.02
86.8
1.16
=b
0.08
0.64
5
201
1.57
d=
0.14
0.85
55.57
87.6
1.79
d=
0.15
1.02
6
+
7
94
2.13
0.22
1.66
68.47
88.3
2.41
=fc
0.24
2.00
21-25
2
64
0.47
=h
0.12
0.09
19.49
62.5
0.75
=i:
0.18
0.35
3
120
0.56
zfc
0.08
0.17
16.91
65.0
0.86
0.12
0.42
5
124
1.09
db
0.13
0.49
41.00
87.9
1.24
=fc
0.14
0.68
6
■4
7
87
i
1.40
d=
0.16
0.73
53.00
90.8
1.54
=fc
0.17
0.88
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
1.94=1=0.21
1.29
54.63
86.9
2.24=1=0.22
1.54
4
158
1.84=b0.15
1.31
72.58
88.6
2.07 =fc 0.16 1
1.61
5
304
2.18 =i=0.13
1.64
73.93
84.5
2.57±0.14
2.08
6
109
2.18 =t= 0.21 1
1.71 j
77.39
82.6
2.64=1=0.22
2.18
7
74 :
2.56 =fc 0.38
1.38
82.13
82.4
3.11 =1=0.40
2.25
16-20
3
105
0.98 =fc= 0.12
0.49
25.58
85.7
1.14=1=0.13
0.66
4
104
1.21 =fc0.14
0.70
44.31
89.4
1.35 =1=0.15
0.89
5
305
1.64^0.11
1.02
55.86
^ 88.2
1.86 =1=0.12
1.43
6
111
1.71 =t 0.17
0.98
57.31
1 85.6
2.00=1=0.18
1.50
7
75
2.21 =1=0.24
1.60
68.38
1 96.0
2.31 =1=0.24
1.75
21-25
5
183
1.17=t0.12
0.62
41.50
84.2
1.39=1=0.14
0.86
6
98
1.10^0.13
0.65
43.15
; 84.7
1.30=1=0.14
0.80
7
71
i
1.37 0.16
0.96
54.04
i 95.8
1
1.43 =1=0.17
1.03
{Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
423
Masturbation and Occupational Class
OCCXJP.
1
1
AGE
GROUP
CLASS
total population
active population
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
AdoL-15
3
65
1.81 =5=0.24
j 1.18
54.18
92.3
1.96 ±0.25
1.30
! 5
563
2.13 =b0.09
1 1.62
78.07
85.1
2.51 =5=0.10
1 1.94
6
228
2.17 =5=0.15
1.69
76.69
83.3
2.60 =5=0.17
2.08
7
152
2.05 =5=0.22
1.10
78.48
80.3
2.55 =5=0.25
1.67
16-20
3
64
0.88 =5=0.12
0.57
29.35
89.1
0.99 =t0.13
0.68
5
516
1.68 0.08
1.10
64.37
88.8
1.90 =5=0.09
1.36
6
230
1.82 =5=0.13
1.27
67.29
88.3
2.06 ^0.14
1.57
7
155
1.60=5=0.16
0.85
64.24
86.5
1.86 =5=0.17
1.16
21-25
5
262
1.22=5=0.10
0.64
52.95
84.4
1.45 =5=0.11
0.85
6
178
1.43 =±=0.14
0.65
57.18
85.4
1.67 =5=0.16
0.91
7
143
1.18 =5=0.12
0.57
49.68
85.3
1.38 =5=0.14
0.79
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
5
98
2.74=5=0.28
1.83
74.71
91.8
2.98 =5=0.29
1.98
6
1048
2.29=5=0.08
1.72
81.20
85.1
2.69 =5=0.09
2.13
7
244
2,24=5=0.19
1.34
76.23
79.1
2.84 =5=0.22
2.00
16-20
5
100
1.94=5=0.20
1.55
52.46
90.0
2.16 =5=0.20
1.72
6
1021
1.73 ±0.06
1.18
66.93
90.0
1.92 =5=0.06
1.44
7
246
2.17=5=0.17
1.58
68.26
89.0
2.44 :i=0.19
1.81
21-25
5
71
1.27 =5=0.16
0.78
41.97
81.7
1.56 =5=0.18
1.25
6
554
1.27=5=0.07
0.68
54.80
87.5
1.45 =5=0.07
0.87
7
236
1.38=5=0.13
0.74
48.66
86.9
1,59 =5=0.14
0.91
26-30
6
103
0.94=5=0.13
0.46
39.84
84.5
1.11 =5=0.14
0.64
7
97
1.17=5=0.25
0.44
39.22
79.4
1.48 =5=0.30
0.67
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15
7
414
2.39=5=0.12
1.85
79.29
79.0
3.03 =5=0.13
2.42
16-20
7
416
2.12=5=0.11
1.66
70.34
88.9
2.39 =b0.12
1.87
21-25
7
266
1.51 =5=0.11
0.82
56.56
88.3
1.71 =5=0.11
0.99
Table 108. Masturbation in relation to occupational class of parent and of subject
All data based on single males.
424
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP.
CLASS
REACHED
BY
SUBJECT
i
CASES
Nocturnal Emissions and Occupational Class
total population
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
7oOf
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
Adol.-15
2
231
0.05 =b0.01
0.00
1.81
26.0
0.18 ±0.05
0.08
3
126
0.06 =5=0.03
0.00
2.46
21.4
0.30 ±0.14
0.09
16-20
2
198
0.10 ±0.02
0.01
3.28
52.5
0.19 ±0.03
0.08
3
116
0.16 ±0.03
0.03
4.62
59.5
0.27 ±0.05
0.10
21-25
2
92
0 12 ±0.02
0.03
4.81
58.7
0.20 ±0.03
0.10
Parental Occupational Class 3
2
140
0.05 ±0.02
0.00
1.99
25.7
0.20 ±0.05
0.08
3
384
0.11 ±0.02
0.00
3.76
31.3
0.36 ±0.07
0.09
5
205
0.27 ±0.04
0.02
9.64
54.1
0.50 ±0.07
0.24
6 + 7
92
0.35 ±0.07
0.09
12.55
71.7
0.49 ±0.09
0.24
2
138
0.11 ±0.02
0.02
3.95
56.5
0.20 ±0.03
0.09
3
318
0.21 ±0.02
0.05
6.12
65.1
0.33 ±0.03
0.13
5
201
0.35 ±0.04
0.14
12.48
82.6
0.43 ± 0 04
0.24
6 + 7
94
0 47 ±0.07
0.26
15.08
93.6
0.50 ± 0.07
0.29
2
64
0.13 ±0.03
0.04
5.39
64.1
0.20 ±0.05
0.09
3
120
0.19 ±0.03
0.04
5.74
63.3
0.30 ±0.05
0.11
5
124
0.31 ±0.04
0.11
11.82
73.4
0.43 ±0.06
0.27
6 + 7
87
0.38 ±0.06
0.22
14.45
90.8
0.42 ±0.06
0.26
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
0.07 ±0.02
0.00
2.08
31.8
0.23 ±0.06
0.11
4
158
0.07 ±0.02
0.00
2.77
36.1
0.19 ±0.04
0.09
5
304
0.28 ±0.04
0.06
9.64
63.2
0.45 ±0.06
0.21
6
109
0.33 ±0.05
0.08
11.75
67.0
0.50 ±0.07
0.32
7
74
0.45 ±0.09
0.19
14.39
81.1
0.55 ±0.10
0.29
16-20
3
105
0.24 ±0.05
0.06
6.22
65.7
0.36 ±0.06
0.18
4
104
0.14 ±0.03
0.04
5.07
64.4
0.21 ±0.03
0.10
5
305
0.38 ±0.04
0.15
12.87
87.2
0.43 ±0.04
0.22
6
111
0.48 ±0.06
0,29
16.20
88.3
0.55 ±0.06
0.35
7
75
0.55 ±0.09
0.29
17.04
90.7
0.61 ±0.10
0.33
21-25
5
183
0.35 ±0.05
0.15
12.38
84.2
0.42 ±0.06
0.23
6
98
0.46 ±0.07
0.25
17.85
86.7
0.53 ±0.07
0.32
7
71
0.39 ±0.07
0.19
15.41
83.1
0.47 ±0.08
0.28
{Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
425
Nocturnal Emissions and Occupational Class
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP.
1
CLASS
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
7oOf
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
Adol.-15
3
65
0.05
d=
0.02
0.00
1.38
30.8
0.15
=fc
0.04
0.08
5
563
0.31
=b
0.03
0.05
11.24
60.9
0.50
=b
0.05
0.23
6
228
0.43
=i=
0.08
0.12
15.04
68.9
0.62
0.12
0.30
7
152
0.43
=i=
0.06
0.22
16.47
78.3
1
0.55
db
0.08
0.33
16-20
3
64
0.14
0.04
0.03
4.53
60.9
0.22
=h
0.05
0.08
5
516
0.37
=b
0.03
0.17
14.17
85.1
0.44
dr
0.03
0.25
6
230
0.47
=b
0.05
0.26
17.25
89.6
0.52
d=
0.05
0.31
7
155
0.47
d=
0.06
0.29
18.70
92.3
0.51
dr
0.06
0.32
21-25
5
262
0.30
=fc
0.03
0.16
13.01
82 4
0.36
dr
0.04
0,24
6
178
0.43
=h
0.05
0.24
16.99
86.0
0.49
dr
0.05
0.30
7
143
0.40
dr
0.06
0 23
16.70
86.7
0.46
1
rb
0.07
0.29
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
5
98
0.20 ±0.04
0 04
5.54
59.2
0.34 ± 0.06
0.19
6
1048 i
0.28 ±0.02
0.08
10.09
66 9
0.43 ± 0.02
0.26
7 1
244
0.44 ±0.04
0.25
15.07
84.0
0.53 ±0.04
0.33
16-20
5
100
0.35 ±0.05
0.17
9.52
85.0
0.41 =t 0.06
0.24
6
1021
0.38 ±0.02
0.23
14.77
90.8
0.42 ± 0.02
0.27
7
246
0.54 ±0.04
0.33
16.88
93.5
0.58 ± 0.04
0.35
21-25 1
5
71
0,31 ±0.05
0.16
10.23
78.9
0.39 ± 0.06
0.26
6
554
0.37 ±0.02
I 0.22
15.85
87.5
0.42 ± 0.02
0.28
7
236
0.43 ±0.04
1 0.26
15.12
88.1
0.49 ±0.04
0.32
26-30
6
103
0.31 ±0.04
i 0.20
13.17
84.5
0.37 ±0.04
0.27
7
97
0.30 ±0.04
0.20
10.18
83.5
0.36 ±0.04
0.27
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.~15
7
414
0.40 ±0.04
0.18
13.30
76.6
0.52 ±0.05
0.30
16-20
7
416
0.43 ±0.03
0.27
14.38
88.9
0.49 ±0.03
0.32
21-25
7
266
0.43 ±0.04
0.26
15.95
86.8
0.49 ±0.05
0.31
Table 109. Nocturnal emissions in relation to occupational class of parent and
of subject
All data based on single males.
426
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
from very young boys, in order to examine the possibility that movements
between social classes begin in pre-adolescence. It is now certain that such
movements are well under way by the earliest adolescent years, and that
they are completed long before most boys ever leave the parental home.
More detailed analyses of the data shown in Tables 107 to 115 may be
summed up as follows:
Occupational Classes 2 and 3. Class 2 includes the day laborers and
class 3 includes the semi-skilled laborers. It will be seen that the sexual
patterns of these two groups are very similar, whether measured by inci-
dences or frequencies for particular sources of outlet. Class 3 does have
somewhat higher frequencies of total outlet, primarily because class 2
(like the grade school group in Chapter 10) has its averages pulled down by
the undue number of physically poor and mentally dull individuals who
are in the group.
Occupational class 2 is one of the most stable in the social organization.
About 56 per cent of the males who were born in class 2 stay in that class
throughout their lives (Table 106). The median number of years of school-
ing which this group has is 6.8 (Table 80), and it is only 23 per cent of the
group which ever goes into high school. Consequently, the sexual pattern
for most of the group is very close to that which has been described pre-
viously (Chapter 10) for those boys who never go beyond grade school.
The single males of the group depend primarily upon heterosexual inter-
course, utilize masturbation to a lesser degree, have an absolute minimum
of nocturnal emissions, rarely pet to the point of climax, and are involved
in the homosexual more frequently than the males in any other occupa-
tional class (Tables 107-115).
To apply the description to a specific age period, namely that between
ages 16 and 20, the statement is that these males who never belong to any
occupational class that is higher than a 2 or a 3 average pre-marital inter-
course with frequencies that are 6 to 8 times as high as the frequencies
among boys who go further along in school and who ultimately belong to
occupational class 6 (Figures 101-102). Between 16 and 20 they masturbate
only about half as often as the boys who end up in occupational class 6
(Figure 98). The nocturnal emissions of the males of class 2 occur one-
quarter as often as nocturnal emissions among the males of class 6 or 7
(Figure 99). Class 3 has emissions more frequently than class 2. Petting to
climax between ages 16 and 20 occurs only a half or a third as often among
these boys who are in class 2 and class 3 (Figure 100). Frequencies of the
homosexual among males of class 2, between the ages of 16 and 20, are 11
times higher than among the males who ultimately arrive in occupational
class 7 ; and, next to class 2, the males of class 3 have the highest frequen-
cies in the homosexual (Figure 105).
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
427
About 90 per cent of the males of occupational class 2 who have contrib-
uted to the present study had parents who belonged to either occupational
class 2 or 3 (Table 106). There has not been much movement between
classes here. On the other hand, the males of occupational class 3, which
includes the semi-skilled workmen, were derived from parents of the same
occupational class in 44 per cent of the cases (Table 106), and in the
remainder of the cases derived more or less equally from parents of occupa-
tional class 2 and from parents of higher social rating. About 38 per cent of
the males of occupational class 3 represent individuals who regressed from
the level reached by their parents. In a number of cases, the fathers were
skilled workmen whose offspring were not equally skilled, but in 1 5 per cent
of the cases these males in class 3 were derived from parents who belonged
to white collar classes, even including professional and top business groups.
However, in spite of the diverse origins of the males in class 3, there is
most remarkable agreement between the sexual histories of those who came
from occupational class 2 and those who came from occupational classes
4 and 5. This agreement becomes striking by the time the male has reached
his late teens, but it is already quite apparent in the histories of the youngest
adolescent boys.
Occupational Class 4. This class includes the skilled workmen. It is the
least stable of all the occupational classes. There is a continual influx into
the group from persons who originated in occupational classes 2 and 3.
On the other hand, the offspring of the group move on into higher occupa-
tional ratings in 57 per cent of the cases. The group has a much better
economic status than most of the other laboring groups, and includes a
good many persons of superior ability. The group continuously aspires to
higher levels and a considerable proportion of its children go to college.
About 40 per cent of the group stops with some high school education,
and 7 per cent gets some work in college. Next to the white collar and pro-
fessional classes, this is the class that supplies the largest number of college
students (Table 80). Because of this migration the group does not perpet-.
uate itself. It has been a considerable problem in industry to persuade the
sons of skilled workmen to become interested in the trades in which their
fathers work.
In their patterns of sexual behavior, the males of occupational class 4
seem to be more or less intermediate between males of the lower occupa-
tional classes and males of the lower white collar group (Tables 107-115).
The children in the homes which belong to occupational class 4 present an
amazing assemblage of patterns of behavior, because some of them finally
regress to class 3, and a great many of them move on to occupational classes
5 and 6, and, in a fair number of cases, to the professional class 7. By
early adolescence, the boys from class 4 homes who are destined to reach
class 7 may already be identified by their high frequencies of masturbation
428
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP. ‘
CLASS
REACHED
BY
SUBJECT
CASES
Petting to Climax, and Occupational Class
total population
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%0f
Total
Outlet
Incid.
/o
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
AdoL-15
2
231
0.05 0.02
0.00 1
1.83
14.3
0.34 =±=0.11
0.07
3
126
0.03 0.01
0.00
0.95
14.3
0.18 =t0.10
0.06
16-20
2
198
0.07 =1=0.02
0.00
2.13
25.8
0.25 =±=0.08
0.07
3
116
0.04 =L 0.02
0.00
1.14
24.1
0.17 =1=0.07
0.06
21-25
2
92
0.07 =t 0.04
0.00
2.72
17.4
0.38 ±0.20
0.09
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
140
0.03 =b 0.02
0.00
1.24
11.4
0.28 =1=0.14
0.08
3 ‘
384
0.04 =fc 0.01
0.00
1.27
17.4
0.22 =1=0.06
0.06
5
205
0.03 =fc0.01
0.00
0.95
12.2
0.22 =1=0.07
0.08
6 + 7
92
0.02 =1=0.01
0.00
0.74
14.1
0.15 ±0.04
0.09
16-20
2
138
0.08 =1=0.03
0.00
2.89
22.5
0.36 ±0.11
0.09
3
318
0.07 =b 0.02
0.00
2.10
29.6
0.25 ±0.06
0.06
5
201
0.10 =1=0.02
0.00
3.57
34.8
0.29 ±0.05
0.11
6 + 7
94
0.15 =1=0.03
0.00
4.66
45.7
0.32 ±0.05
0.21
21-25
2 i
64
0.07 =1=0.05
0.00
3.05
14.1
0.52 ±0.36
0.08
3
120
0,07 =1=0.03
0.00
2.02
17.5
0.38 ±0.19
0.07
5
124
! 0.11 =1=0.02
0.00
4.01
36.3
0.29 ±0.06
0.10
6 + 7
87
0.21 =1=0.041
0.06
!
7.92
67.8
0.31 ±0.05
0.14
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
0.04 ±0.02
0.00
1.14
25.2
0.16 ±0.06
0.06
4
158
0.04 ±0,02
0.00
1.58 1
13.9
0.29 ±0.12
0.07
5
304
0.03 ±0.01
0.00
1.01
11.8
0.25 ±0.06
0.08
6
109
0.04 ±0.02
0.00
1.46
9.2
0.45 ±0.23
0.09
7
74
0.04 ±0.03
0.00
1.21
8.1
0.47 ±0.27
0.30
16-20
3
105
0.06 ±0.02
0.00
1.53
36.2
0.16 ±0.05
0.06
4
104
0.08 ±0.03
0.00
2.91
24.0
0.33 ±0.13
0.08
5
305
0.11 ±0.02
0.00
3.72
43.9
0.25 ±0.03
0.08
6
111
0.20 ±0.05
0.01
6.75
51.4
0.39 ±0.10
0.09
7
75
0.12 ±0.04
0.00
3.82
41.3
0.30 ±0.10
0.10
21-25
5
183
0.14 ±0.03
0.00
4.94
47.0
0.30 ±0.06
0.08
6
98
0.27 ±0.07
0.02
10.37
56.1
0.47 ±0.11
0.09
7
71
0.17 ±0.04
0.03
6.53
56.3
0.29 ±0.06
0.20
[Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
429
Petting to Climax, and Occupational Class
OCCUP.
1
AGE
GROUP
CLASS
TOTAL population
ACTIVE POPULATION
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Indd.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
Adol.-15
3
65
0.03
d=
0.01
0.00
0.83
16.9
0.16
=h
0.07
0.08
5
563
0.04
0.01
0.00
1.57
13.1
0.33
d=
0.06
0.09
6
228
0.04
=h
0.02
0.00
1.50
10.5
0.40
sfc
0.12
0.13
7
152
0.06
=1=
0.02
0.00
2.12
12.5
0.44
db
0.11
0.32
16-20
3
64
0.05
d=
0.03
0.00
1.79
21.9
0.25
=b
0.13
0.07
5
516
0.14
=t:
0.02
0.00
5.19
40.3
0.34
d=
0.04
0.09
6
230
0.15
db
0.03
0.00
5.42
40.4
0.36
zb
0.06
0.09
7
155
0.17
db
0.03
0.003
6.62
50.3
0.33
db
0.06
0.16
21-25
5
262
0.14
d=
0.02
0.00
6.04
45.8
0.30
=b
0.04
0.09
6
178
0.21
db
0.04
0.01
8.35
52.8
0.40
d=
0.06
0.09
7
143
0.17
0.03
0.02
7.08
53.1
0.32
zb
0.05
0.21
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
5
98
0.03 =fc 0.02
0.00
0.86
12.2
0.26 ±0.12
0.08
6
1048
0.05 =±=0.01
0.00
1.84
16.7
0.31 ±0.04
0.09
7
244
0.02 ±0.01
0.00
0.74
9.0
0.24 ±0.10
0.08
16-20
5
100
0.12 ±0.04
0.00
3.36
34.0
0.37 ±0.10
0.08
6
1021
0.14 ±0.01
0.00
5.47
46.4
0.30 ±0.02
0.09
7
246
0.14 ±0.02
0.00
4.48
48.0
0.30 ±0.04
0.09
21-25
5
71
0.21 ±0.07
0.00
6.96
42.3
0.50 ±0.15
0.09
6
554
0.16 ± 0.02
0.00
7.02
46.2
0.35 ±0.03
0.09
7
236
0.23 ±0.03
0.04
7.93
61.0
0.37 ±0.05
0.10
26-30
6
103
0.10 ±0.03
0.00
4.36
39.8
0.26 ±0.06
0.08
7
97
0.15 ±0.03
j 0.004
5.15
50.5
0.31 ±0.05
0.09
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15
7
414
0.07 ±0.02
0.00
2.21
15.0
0.45 ±0.08
0.13
16-20
7
416
0.18 ±0.03
0.00
5.99
49.5
0.37 ±0.05
0.09
21-25
7
266
0.23 ±0.05
0.02
8.73
55.6
0.42 ±0.08
0.15
Table 1 10. Petting to climax, in relation to occupational class of parent and of
subject
All data based on single males.
430
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP.
CLASS
REACHED
BY
SUBJECT
CASES
Non-marital Intercourse and Occupational Class
TOTAL POPULATION
active POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Me- ]
dian '
Freq.
%0f
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
Adol.-15
2
231
0.59 ±0.08
0.00
22.57
46.8
1.27 =1=0.15
0.75
3
126
0.90 =±=0.17
0.00
34.33
46.0
1.95 ±0.31
1.13
16-20
2
198
1.20 =t: 0.12
0.51
39.74
79.3
1.52 ±0.14
0.88
3
116
j 1.90=1=0.32
0.55
54.47
85.3
2.23 =±=0.36
0.86
21-25
2
92
0.95 ±0.17
0.34
39.28
77.2
1.23 =±0.21
0.50
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
140
0.56 =±0.11
0.00 ;
21.39 !
41.4
1.35 =±0.22
0.83
3
384
1.00 =±0.11
0.00
32.95
45.6
2.19 =±0.22
1.13
5
205
0.22 =±0.07
0.00 1
7.81
17.1
1.29 =±0.33
0.37
6
+
7
92
0.06 =±0.03
0.00
2.05
5.4
1.05 =±0.43
1.00
16-20 i
2
138
1.20 =±0.12'
0.56
42.45
79.0
1.52 =±0.14
1.11
3
318
1.76 =±0.17
0.50
50.81
77.4
2.27 =±0.20
1.07
5
201
0.46 =±0.11
0.00
16.17
42.8
1.07 ±0.24
0.31
6
+
7
94
0.29 =±0.09
0.00
9.46
41.5
0.71 ±0.19
0.19
21-25
2
64
1.19 =±0.22
0.38
49.33
75.0
1.58 ±0.27
0.88
3
120
1.90 =±0.31
0.58
57.40
81.7
2.33 ±0.37
0.92
5
124
0.65 =±0.13
0.04
24.50
55.6
1.17 ±0.21
0.39
6
+
7
87
0.58 =±0.11
0.10
21.79
64.4
0.89 ±0.15
0.44
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
1.17 ±0.20
0.16
32.87
53.3
2.19 ±0.31
1.38
4 i
158
0.48 ±0.12
0.00
18.97
36.1
1.33 ±0.32
0.43
5
304
0.29 =±0.09
0.00
9.69
20.1
1.42 =± 0.44
0.34
6 !
109
0.03 ±0.02
0.00
0.89
4.6
0.55 ±0.44
0.10
7
74
S
d
■H
o
o
d
0.00
0.06
4.1
0.05 =±
0.07
16-20
3
105
2.17 =±0.28
1.00
56.84
92.4
2.35 ±0.29
1.50
4
104
1,01 =±0.20
0.14
37.24
66.3
1.53 ±0.28
0.63
5
305
0.56 =±0.11
0.00
19.14
47.2
1.19 ±0.22
0.31
6
111
0.29 ±0.08
0.00
9.62
37.8
0.76 ±0.18
0.21
7
75
0.30 =±0.13
0.00
9.34
38.7
0.78 ±0.33
0.16
21-25
5
183
0.78 =±0.18
0.06
27.50
59.0
1.32 ±0.29
0.35
-
6
98
'0.44 ±0.08
0.06
17.07
i 62.2
0.70 ±0.11
0.33
7
71
0.58 ±0.14
0.07
22.94
56.3
1.03 ±0.22
0.46
{Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
431
I Non-marital Intercourse and Occupational Class
occur.
CLASS
REACHED CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Parental Occupational C lass 5
36.51 53.8 2.26 ±0.53 1.25
2.74 14.9 0.50 ±0.08 0.25
2.14 7.5 0.81 ± 0.30 0.33
0.40 7.9 0.13 ± 0.04 0.08
50.76 79.7 1.91 ±0.39 0.94
9.39 38.8 0.63 ± 0.07 0.27
5.86 40.4 0.39 ±0.06 0.19
8.08 39.4 0.51 ±0.09 0.25
15.87 50.0 0.73 ±0.10 0.34
12.97 59.0 0.55 ±0.08 0.27
23.29 67.1 0.82 ±0.12 0.39
Class 6
Adol.-15 5 98 0.21 ±0.07 0.00 5.78 20.4 1.04 ± 0.28 0.65
6 1048 0.09 ±0.02 0.00 3.06 10.1 0.85 ±0.21 0.26
7 244 0.12 ±0.07 0.00 4.20 7.8 1.59 ±0.81 0.20
16-20 5 100 0.58 ±0.15 0.00 15.70 49.0 1.19 ± 0.29 0.46
6 1021 0.23 ±0.03 0.00 9.04 39.4 0.59 ±0.07 0.20
7 246 0.23 ±0.04 0.00 7.10 37.8 0.60 ±0.09 0.27
21-25 5 71 0.53 ± 0.15 0.02 17.57 52.1 1.02 ±0.26 0.54
6 554 0.39 ±0.04 0.02 16.72 52.2 0.74 ±0.07 0.32
7 236 0.71 ±0.11 0.07 24.89 63.1 1.12 ±0.16 0.36
26-30 6 103 0.68 ±0.17 0.05 28.76 55.3 1.22 ± 0.28 0.46
7 97 1.15 ±0.21 0.26 38.35 63.9 1.80 ±0.31 1.08
Married
21-25 6 113 0.11 ±0.09 0.00 3.05 15.9 0.70 ±0.54 0.13
7 76 0.16 ±0.12 0.00 3.55 17.1 0.93 ±0.66 0.23
26-30 6 112 0.05 ±0.01 0.00 1.46 27.7 0.16 ± 0.03 0.08
7 135 0.18 ± 0.07 0.00 5.02 28.1 0.63 ± 0.23 0.15
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15
7
414
0.08 ±0.03
0.00
2.62
7.5
1.06 ±0.40
0,19
16-20
7
416
0.23 ±0.05
0.00
7.59
35.3
0.65 ±0.14
0.21
21-25
7
266
0.46 ±0.09
0.003
17.20
50.4
0.91 ±0.17
0.22
Table 111. Non-marital intercourse in relation to occupational class of parent
and of subject
All data based on single males except where indicated as “married.” Data for single
males cover pre-marital intercourse with companions only. Data for married males
cover extra-marital intercourse with both companions and prostitutes.
Adol.-15
3
65
1.22 ±0.32
0.10
5
563
0.08 ±0.01
0.00
6
228
0.06 ±0.03
0.00
1 7
152
1
0.01 ±0.004
0.00
16-20
3
64
1.52 ±0.33
0.53
5
516
0.25 ±0.03
0.00
6
230
0.16 ±0.03
0.00
7
155
0.20 ±0.04
0.00
21-25
5
262
0.37 ±0.06
0.001
6
178
0.32 ±0.05
0.05
7
143
0.55 ±0.09
0.14
Parental Occupational
AGE
GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
433
and by their very low frequencies of intercourse. Conversely, the boys from
class 4 homes who will ultimately drop back into a group of semi-skilled
workmen, masturbate less frequently and have a considerable amount of
pre-marital intercourse before they are 15 (Tables 108, 111). Because group
4 is so unstable, it should provide the very best material to be found for the
study of the forces which control the development of sexual patterns, and
particularly those forces which lead an individual to diverge from the
patterns of his parents.
Occupational Qass 5. This is the lower white collar group. It includes
persons who work for the most part indoors at positions demanding some
mental ability but usually not a great deal of training. The educational
background of the group (Table 80) is a high school education of some sort
in a high proportion of the cases, and at least some college work in 44 per
cent of the cases. The group is more stable than occupational class 4, but
it is less stable than any other white collar group. About 19 per cent of its
children drop back into laboring groups and into the trades. However,
53 per cent of the homes in class 5 send their children onto college and into
occupations which give them higher social status.
The sexual patterns of class 5 represent close approximations to the
patterns of the upper white collar classes 6 and 7, as regards masturbation
and nocturnal emissions (Tables 108, 109). The group has a good deal more
pre-marital intercourse than the males of occupational classes 6 and 7
(Table 111) and it has a great deal more homosexual activity than classes
6 and 7 (Table 1 14), but it does not match the high frequencies which
lower occupational classes have in heterosexual coitus and in the homo-
sexual.
Occupational Class 6. This is an upper white collar group whose mem-
bers have college or graduate school training in about 90 per cent of the
cases. Obviously, this was not so in past generations, but there will be an
increasing amount of college training for this group in the future. Class 6
is a remarkably stable group, with 40 per cent of its offspring remaining
in the same class and another 40 per cent moving up into professional
class 7 (Table 106). Since the group is so exclusively college in its educa-
tional background, its pattern is typical of that described in Chapter 10
for the college level. This means that it depends primarily upon mastur-
bation for its pre-marital outlet, but has pre-marital intercourse with
frequencies that are only one-sixth or one-eighth as high as those among
the boys of corresponding age in class 3 (Tables 108, 111). The males of
occupational class 6 are derived from parental homes which rate anything
from 2 to 8 ; but irrespective of the origins of these males, the fact that they
are headed for class 6 is abundantly evident in their early adolescent years,
if not before.
434
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Intercourse with Prostitutes and Occupational Class
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP.
CLASS
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Indd.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
Adol.-15
2
231
0.03
=t0.02
0.00
1.26
6.1
0.55 ±0.28
0.09
3
126
0.01
=fc:0.007
0.00
0.41
5.6
0.19 ±0.11
0.08
16-20
2
198
0.14
±0.03
0.00
4.60
39.4
0.35 ±0.06
0.10
3
116
0.16
±0.04
0.00
4.53
40.5
0.39 ±0.09
0.13
21-25
2
92
0.39
if
o
b
0.07
15.99
66.3
0.58 ±0.12
0.31
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
140
0.04
±0.03
0.00
1.62
6.4
0.66 ±0.40
0.30
3
384
0.01
±0.004'
0.00
0.47
8.1
0.18 ±0.04
0.08
5
205
0.01
±0,005
0.00
0.35
2.9
0.34 ±0.10
0.35
6
+
7
92
0.004=^0.003
0.00
0.13
2.2
0.18±0.13
0.30
16-20
2
138
0.15
±0.03
0.00
5.41
41.3
0.37 ±0.07
0.12
3
318
0.17
±0.03
0.00
4.85
45.3
0.37 ±0.06
0.10
5
201
0.05
±0.01
0.00
1,82
25.9
0.20 ±0.05
0.07
6
4 -
7
94
0.02
±0.01
0.00
0.70
17.0
0.13 ±0.05
0.07
21-25
2
64
0.32
±0.09
0,01
1 13.25
51.6
0.62 ±0.17
0.28
3
120
0.35
±0.08
0.03
10.66
55.8
0.63 ±0.14
0.30
1
5
124
0.07
±0.02
0.00
2.51
21.0
0.32 ±0.09
0.08
! 6
4 *
7
87
0.02
±0.01
0.00
0.80
' 25.3
0.08 ±0.02
0.06
Parental Occupational Class 4
AdoL-15
3
107
0.01
±0.02
0.00
0.34
10.3
0.12
ds
0.04
0.08
4
158
0.01
±0.007
0.00
0.52
4.4
0.30
0.14
0.10
5
304
0.003 ±0.002
0.00
0.10
3.0
0.11
:±=
0.04
0.07
6
109
0.003 ±0.003
1
0.00
0.09
0.9
0.30
d=
0.50
16-20
3
105
0.10
±0.02
0.02
2.62
57.1
0.18
0.03
0.08
4
104
0.17
±0.05
0.00
6.28
44.2
0.39
=b
0.09
i 0.09
5 ,
305
0.04
±0.01
0.00
1.46
27.2
0.16
=b
0.04
0.07
6 i
111
0.03
±0.01
0.00
0.89
17.1
0.16
=±=
0.07
0.07
7
75
0.01
±0.006
0.00
0.43
14.7
0.10
1
0.03
0.07
21-25
5
183
0.06
±0,02
0.00
2.25
26.2
^0.24
=b
0.07
0.08
6
98
0.03
±0.01
0.00
1.09
15.3
0.18
=i=
0.05
0.09
7
71
0.01
±0.004
0.00
0.38
12,7
0.08
=b
0.01
0.06
{Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
435
Intercourse with Prostitutes and Occupational Class
AGE
GROUP
OCCUR.
TOTAL population
ACTIVE population
CLASS
CASES
REACHED i
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Indd.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
AdoL-15
3
65
0.01 ± 0.007
0.00
0.32
6.2
0.18 ± 0.08
0.20
5
563
0.006 ± 0.003
0.00
0.22
3.6
0.18 ± 0.07
0.08
6
228
0 . 001 ±
0.0004
0.00
0.02
1.3
0.05
0.07
7
152
0 . 0003 ±
0.0003
0.00
0.01
0.7
; o . o5
0.10
16-20
3
64
0.11 ± 0.03
0.01
3.75
53.1
, 0.21 ± 0.04
0.09
5
516
0.03 ± 0.004
0.00
1.04
23.8
0.12 ± 0.02
0.06
6
230
0.02 ± 0.01
0.00
0.75
14.8
0.14 ± 0.06
0.06
7
155
0.02 ± 0.01
0.00
0.60
14.2
0.11 ± 0.06
0.06
21-25
5
262
0.06 ± 0.02
0.00
2.40
24.8
0.22 ± 0.06
0.08
6
178
0.01 ± 0.005
0.00
0.53
; 12.9
0.10 ± 0.04
0.06
7
143
0.02 ± 0.01
0.00
0.98
18.9
0.12 ± 0.06
0.06
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
5
98
0.005 ± 0.003
0.00 •
0.12 '
4.1
0.11 ± 0.07
0.08
6
1048
0 . 005 ± 0.003
0.00 j
0.18
2.5
0.21 ± 0.09
0.06
7
244
0 . 001 ±
0.0005
0.00
0.04
2.5
0.05
0.06
16-20
5
100
0.02 ± 0.005
0.00
0.54
25.0
0.08 ± 0.02
0.06
6
1021
0.02 ± 0.004
0.00 1
0.90
20.4
0.11 ± 0.02
0.06
7
246
0.04 ± 0.01
0.00
1.11
17.9
0.20 ± 0.05
0.08
21-25
5
71
0.03 ± 0.01
0.00
0.99
! 25.4
0.12 ± 0.03
0.07
6
554
0.03 ± 0.005
0.00
1.15
18.2
0.15 ± 0.02
0.07
7
236
0.08 ± 0.05
0.00
2.87
21.6
! 0.38 ± 0.22
0.07
26-30
6
1
103
0.04 ± 0,02
0.00
1.84
18.4
0,23 ± 0.10
0.08
7
97
j0.20 ± 0.16
0.00
6.63
16.5
1.20 ± 0.96
0.09
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-isi
7
414
0 . 004 ± 0.002
0.00
0.12
2.9
0.13 ± 0.04
0.08
16-20
7
416
0.02 ± 0.005
0.00
0.70
15.9
0.13 ± 0.03
0.06
21-25
7
266
0.02 ± 0.006
0.00
0.78
13.5
0.15 ± 0.04
0.07
Table 113. Intercourse with prostitutes in relation to occupational class of parent
and of subject
All data based on single males.
436
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Occupational Class 7. This is the professional group which, by definition,
has better than college training in 99 per cent of the cases (Table 106).
About 65 per cent of the offspring of this group go into the professions, and
consequently belong to the same occupational class as their parents ; but
nearly one-fourth of the offspring of the group drops back to occupational
class 6. Only a small portion of the persons in occupational class 7 are
derived from homes which are anything but class 6 or 7 (Table 106). It is,
nevertheless, intensely interesting to find that those males who do get into
class 7 out of parental homes which rated 4 and 5, have class 7 patterns
early in their teens. Indeed, the class 4 males who ultimately arrive at class
7 have the most restrained socio-sexual histories in this whole group, and
depend upon masturbation more exclusively than the class 7 males who
are derived from any other parental background (Table 115). It is as
though the bigger the move which the boy makes between his parental
class and the class toward which he aims, the more strict he is about lining
up his sexual history with the pattern of the group into which he is going
to move. If this were done consciously, it would be more understandable;
but considering that the boy in actuality knows very little about the sexual
behavior of the social group into which he is moving, it is all the more
remarkable to find that these patterns are laid down at such an early age.
VERTICAL MOBILITY: AT LATER AGES
It is a relatively small number of individuals who start with the sexual
pattern of the parental social level, stay with it through their teens and
perhaps for some years beyond, and finally move into some other social
level.
There are some cases of males who have dropped back into a distinctly
lower social level, after they had been well started in the parental class.
Such cases are relatively few. These males are the “black sheep” of the
community, who amount to something less than what was expected of
them, or the persons who become involved in some maze of social circum-
stances which brings economic or social disaster. Men in Salvation Army
homes or over-night hotels have supplied a number of histories of this
sort. The underworld occasionally contributes the history of a man with
a degree of Ph.D. or of M.D. who has turned to illicit activities and to
loafing for an occupation.
Vertical mobility which did not start upward until after the late teens is
found occasionally among males who stop school, find employment as
laborers or in the trades for a period of years, and only later decide to go
to college. These are the individuals who come into contact with some per-
son or persons, or with some particular circumstance which encourages
them to go back to school some time after they have left it. These are the
persons who have enough ability to succeed in business and who are thus
able to achieve social position because of their acquired financial status.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
437
These are the persons who are encouraged or forced, by some particular
circumstance, to consider the future in terms which had never appeared
in their previous thinking, and who may be given specific aid for such an
undertaking. Many GFs who are attending the colleges and universities
of the country would not be going to college now if they were not subsidized
by public funds, and many of them would still not be going to college if
there were not a considerable public sentiment in this country for the GI
to utilize the most of his opportunities.
The sexual records of these males are most significant, but we do not
yet have enough cases to warrant a statistical manipulation of the data.
However, it is safe to generahze so far as to say that males who have lower
level patterns in their early adolescent years, and who keep their lower level
patterns through their teens, usually retain their lower level patterns when
they finally go to college or professional school, and throughout the rest
of their lives. Even though they may subsequently engage in the professions
and acquire considerable social position, they do not usually adopt the
upper level sexual patterns. A male from this group may keep his lower
level pattern even though he may subsequently become a judge on the
bench, a physician, a psychiatrist, or a successful business man. This is, of
course, exactly in line with the conclusions drawn for those males who
departed from the parental pattern in their early years. In both cases, it is
a matter of patterns of behavior being laid down by early or middle
adolescence; and of practically nothing, either in the parental background
or in the subsequent migration of the individual to other social levels,
modifying those patterns in subsequent years. The judge with the lower
level background excuses pre-marital intercourse and objects to mastur-
bation, even though all of his colleagues on the same bench may have
different, upper level ideas on the subject. The successful business man who
has risen from lower levels never gives up his early acceptance of pre-
marital intercourse, but continues to condemn what he calls the sophisti-
cated sexual techniques of the upper level into which he has moved. The
physician whose own history began with a lower level pattern expects to
find pre-marital intercourse in the histories of his patients, and may recom-
mend intercourse to them as a matter of therapy. He has a greater tolerance
of extra-marital intercourse; but he may lecture before the local high
school on the dangers of masturbation. He may assure his patients that
petting as a substitute for coitus is likely to lead to all sorts of nervous dis-
orders and neurotic disturbances. He condemns mouth-genital contacts,
and insists that simple and direct heterosexual coitus provides the only
normal sex fife. Such physicians may imply that they have scientific author-
ity for these opinions, when in actuality they are merely verbalizing the
standards of the social level in which they were raised.
438
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
GROUP
OCCUP.
CLASS
REACHED
BY
SUBJECT
CASES
Homosexual Outlet and Occupational Class
total population
active population
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%Of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 2
Adol.-15
2
231
0,37 =fc0.06
0.00
14.25
32.9
1.14±0.14
0.73
3
126
0.20 ±0.08
0.00
7.51
27.0
0.73 ±0.30
0.23
16-20
2
198
0.33 =fc0.05
0.00
10.85
34.3
0.96 ±0.11
0.66
3
116
0.21 ±0.08
0.00
6.06
26.7
0.79 ±0.27
0.23
21-25
2
92
0.18 ±0.05
0.00
7.29
26.1
0.68 ±0.16
0.36
Parental Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
140
0.27 ±0.07
0.00
10.50
30.0
0.91 ±0.21
0.36
3
384
0.26 ±0.05
0.00
8.66
29.4
0.89 ±0.15
0.37
5
205
0.16 ±0.04
0.00
5.53
25.4
0.61 ±0.15
0.10
6 + 7
92
0.09 ±0.05
0.00
3.05
22.8
0.37 ±0.22
0.08
16-^20
2
138
0.23 ±0.06
0.00
8.27
29.0
0.81 ±0.17
0.41
3
318
0.22 ±0.05
0.00
6.32
27.4
0.80±0.16
0.27
5
201
0.27 ±0.09
0.00
9.67
24,4
1.12 ±0.35
0.28
6 + 7
94
0.04 ±0.02
0.00
1.41
13.8
0.32 ±0.14
0.10
21-25
2
64
0.21 ±0.10
0.00
8.93
15.6
1.38 ±0.52
0.66
3
120
0.23 ±0.13
0.00
6.95
15.0
1.53 ±0.80
0.45
5
124
0.43 ±0.14
0.00
16.13
21.8
1.97 ±0.57
1.00
6 + 7
87
0.05 ±0.03
0.00
2.00
8.0
0.66 ±0.26
0.50
Parental Occupational Class 4
Adol.-15
3
107
0.31 ±0.10
0.00
8.80
28.0
1.12 ±0.30
0.33
4
158
0.09 ±0.02
0.00
3.49
31.0
0.28 ±0.06
0.09
5
304
0.16 ±0.03
0.00
5.32
22.7
0.69 ±0.12
0.24
6
109 j
0.22 ±0.08
0.00
7.78
26.6
0.83 ±0.29
0.20
7
74
0.05 ±0,03
0.00
1.47
10.8
0.43 ±0.27
0.17
16-20
3
105
0.27 ±0.11
0.00
7.08
31.4
0.86 ±0.32
0.22
4
104
0.11 ±0.06
0.00
4.15
28.8
0.39 ±0.19
0.08
5
305
0.20 ±0.04
0.00
6.77
21.6
0.92 ±0.16
0.27
6
111
0.27 ±0.10
0.00
9.18
20.7
1.32 ±0.39
0.30
7
75
0.03 ±0.02
0.00
0.90
12.0
0.24 ±0.14
0.08
21-25
5
183
0.32 ±0.09
0.00
11.40
21.3
1.51 ±0.38
0.83
6
98
0.27 ±0.10
0.00
10.43
18.4
1.45 =±=0.44
0.35
7
71
0.02 ± 0.01
0.00
0.66
1 5.6
0.30 ±0.18
0.30
(Table continued on next page)
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
439
i
Homosexual Outlet and Occupational Class
OCCUP.
i
1
AGE
GROUP
CLASS
total population
1 ACTIVE POPULATION
REACHED
CASES
BY
SUBJECT
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Parental Occupational Class 5
Adol.-15
3
65
0.15 =l0.06
0.00
4.47
29.2
0.51 ±0.18
0.10
5
563
0.15 ±0.02
0.00
5.31
26.6
0.55 ±0.06
0.18
6
228
0.09 ±0.03
0.00
3.21
19.7
0.46 ±0.14
0.09
7
152
0.06 ±0.02
0.00
2.37
22.4
0.28 ±0.08
0.08
16^20
3
64
0.23 ±0.09
0.00
7.50
35.9
0.63 ±0.24
0.10
5
516
0.14 ±0.02
0.00
5.34
21.5
0.65 ±0.09
0.12
6
230
0.07 ±0.03
0.00
2.69
15.2
0.48 ±0.15
0.09
7
155
0.04 ± 0.02
0.00
1.65
11.6
0.36 ±0.13
0.08
21-25
5
262
0.21 ±0.06
0.00
9.07
15.6
1.34±0.36
0.50
6
178
0.10 ±0.04
0.00
3.84
9.6
1.01 ±0.34
0.34
7
143
0.05 ±0.03
0.00
2.22
7.7
0.69 ±0.29
0.30
Parental Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
i 5
98
0.45 ±0.12
0.00
12.34
41.8
1.08 ±0.25
0.32
6
1048
0.08 ±0,01
0.00 !
2.77
1 22.7
0.34 ±0.04
0.08
7
244
0.10 ±0.03
0.00
3.37
22.1
0.45 ±0.12
0.10
16-20
5
100
0.62 ±0.15
0.00
16.85
44.0
1.42 ±0.29
0.88
6
1021
0.06 ±0.01
0.00
2.24
16.7
0.35 ±0.06
0.09
7
246
0,07 ±0.03
0.00
2.10
14.2
0.47 ±0.20
0.08
21-25
5
71
0.67 ±0.19
0.00
22.21
32.4
2.08 ±0.47
1.70
6
554
0.10 ±0.02
0.00
4.20
10.6
0,91 ±0.19
0.28
7
236
0.01 ±0.005
0.00
0.49
6.8
0.21 ±0.07
0,09
26-30
6
103
0.27 ±0.09 '
0.00
11.68
24.3
1.13 ±0.30
0,42
7
97 1
0.01 ±0.01 1
1
0.00
0.43
5.2
0.25 ±0.15
0.10
Parental Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15
7
414
0.07 ±0.01
0.00
2.38
23.2
0.31 ±0.05
0.09
16-20
7
416
0,03 ±0,01
0.00
0.94
13.7
0.21 ±0.05
0.07
21-25
7
266
0.02 ±0,01
0.00
0.74
5.6
0.35 ±0.25
0.07
Table 114. Homosexual outlet in relation to occupational class of parent and
of subject
All data based on single males.
440
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
TRANSMISSION OF SEXUAL MORES
When we understand the processes by which the sexual mores are
stabilized in each social group, and transmitted to each and all of the mem-
bers of the group, we shall have gone a considerable way toward under-
standing some of the most fundamental of social phenomena. If we under-
stood the forces which lead some boys to ignore the attitudes and expressed
sexual philosophies of their parents, and even of their companions in the
community in which they are raised, we should have the key to problems
that are basic in genetic psychology. If we knew by what processes a boy
acquires the patterns of a social level in which he is not living and into
which he will only ultimately move, we should know a great deal more than
we do today.
It is a far simpler matter to understand how children acquire their habits
in regard to dressing, eating, and other behavioral activities. It is much
simpler to discern the processes by which they learn to speak the mother
tongue. But since there is a minimum of verbal instruction on matters of
sex, since the child is rarely lectured in regard to attitudes on sex, and since
it almost never observes adult sexual activity, sex education is a subtle
process which, nevertheless, is powerful enough to force most children,
somewhere during pre-adolescent or early adolescent years, into becoming
conforming machines which rarely fail to perpetuate the mores of the
community.
We can record the fact of vertical mobility in the social organization; we
can figure statistics on the number of persons who make such moves and
the directions in which they move. In all of psychology and sociology there
is, however, next to no information on the factors which affect this move-
ment from out of a parental group into a new social status. That a con-
siderable number of individuals should aspire to move into levels that have
greater prestige is quite understandable; but that does not explain why
certain individuals rather than others are the ones who make these moves.
We have been able to show that sexual attitudes and overt experience in
sexual activities are closely correlated with the educational and occupa-
tional class into which an individual ultimately moves, after he has broken
with his parental background but very often before he has ever left the
parental home. But this still falls short of identifying the impetus which
stirs that individual to make such moves.
As yet we have only hypotheses about the sources of the inspiration
which leads this boy to make the break with his parental pattern, and as
yet we can only cite specific instances in support of our preliminary think-
ing. We can point to the father whose contacts with the upper level lead
him to associate upper level sexual patterns with upper level success in
social and business affairs. His contacts may not affect his own sexual per-
formance, but they may be significant enough to lead him to encourage a
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
441
pattern for his son which differs from his own. It is probable that the
mother is even more often responsible for the boy’s sexual restraint. It is
often she who encourages him to associate with proper, well-behaved, and
similarly restrained upper level companions. On the other hand, there are
cases of boys who make these moves in the face of parental objections.
Some boys complete high school only over the parental protest and
ultimately go to college without parental support and sometimes in the
face of considerable opposition from their homes. The boy’s companions
in school, in church, and elsewhere, may take him away from his com-
panions in the community in which he actually lives. Sometimes adults
other than the parents have something to do with the boy’s acquisition of
new attitudes and ideals. We shall need a great deal of additional informa-
tion before we can appraise the relative significances of these several sources
of influence, and of still others which we may not yet have recognized.
Psychologists and psychiatrists will be inclined to suggest that the begin-
nings of this conditioning should be searched for in very early childhood,
and what few data we do have confirm such a theory. As noted earher in
the present volume (Chapter 5), we have recently undertaken to secure
sexual data from very young children and plan to publish a volume con-
cerned entirely with these processes of learning. Although the data are not
yet abundant enough to analyze statistically, we can make the following
generalizations at this time:
1. Some of the most fundamental distinctions between the social levels
are already discernible in pre-adolescents as young as 3 and 4. The ease or
embarrassment with which such a child discusses genitaha, excretory
functions, anatomical distinctions between males and females, the possi-
bility that there has been self manipulation of genitaha, the possibihty that
there has been genital exhibition or genital play with other children, the
question of the origin of babies, the merely social companionship with his
own or the opposite sex, questions about kissing his parents and about
kissing companions of his own or of the opposite sex — and kindred items
— vindicate in practically every instance that the 3- or 4-year old child
has already acquired something of the social attitudes on at least some of
these issues.
Social approval or disapproval means a great deal to a child of that age.
It may not take more than a single adverse experience to make a child feel
that he must not expose himself again to the laughter, the specific repri-
mand, or physical punishment which accompanied his first performance.
The disdainful ridicule of other children, the angry withdrawal of com-
panions who disapprove of the child’s overt activity, the nervous amuse-
ment of adults, are things that even the 3-year old does not wish to experi-
ence again.
442
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
1 PAREN-
Outlets and Parental Occupational Class
Mean Frequencies, Total Population
AGE
GROUP
TAL
' OCCUP.
CLASS
CASES
Total
Outlet
1 Mastur-
bation
Noctur-
nal Emis-
sions i
1
Petting ^
to
Climax
Coitus,
Com-
panions
Coitus,
Pros-
titutes
Homo-
sexual
Subject: Occupational Class 3
Adol.-15
2
126
2.68
1.40
0.06
0.03
0.90
0.01
0.20
3
384
3.10
1.57
0.11
0.04
1.00
0.01
0.26
4
107
3.62
1.94
0.07
0.04
1.17
0.01
0.31
5
65
3.38
1.81
0.05
0.03
1.22
0.01
0.15
16-20
2
116
3.46
1.01
0.16
0.04
1.90
0.16
0.21
3
318
3.50
1.00
0.21
0.07
1.76
0.17
0.22
4 i
105 I
3.82
0.98
0.24
0.06
2.17
0.10
0.27
5
64 1
3.03
0.88
0.14
0.05
1.52
0.11
0.23
Subject: Occupational Class 5
Adol.-15
3
205
2.85
2.07
0.27
0.03
0.22
0.01
0.16
4
304
3.00
2,18
0.28
0.03
0.29
0.003
0.16
5
563
2.77
2.13
0.31
0.04
0.08
0.006
0.15
6
98
3.76
2.74
0.20
0.03
0.21
0.005
0.45
16-20
3
201
2.88
1.57
0.35
0.10
0.46
0.05
0.27
4
305
2.97
1.64
0.38
0.11
0.56
0.04
0.20
5
516
2.63
1.68
0.37
0.14
0.25
0.03
0.14
1
6
100
3.80
1.94
0.35
0.12
0.58
0.02
0.62
21-25
3
124
2.73
1.09
0.31
0.11
0.65
0.07
0.43
4
183
2.86
1.17
0.35
0.14
0.78
0.06
0.32
5
262
2 32
1.22
0.30
0.14
0.37
0.06
0.21
6
71
3.13
1.27
0.31
0.21
0.53
0.03 !
0.67
Subject: Occupational Class 6
Adol.-15
4
109
2,85
2.18
0.33
0.04
0.03
0.003
0.22
5
228
2.86
2.17
0.43
0.04
0.06
0.001
0.09
6
1048
2.86
2.29
0.28
0.05
0.09
0.005
0.08
16-20
4
111
3.01
1.71
0.48
0.20
0.29
0.03
0.27
5
230
2.72
1.82
0.47
0.15
0.16
0.02
0.07
6
1021
2.58
1.73
0.38
0.14
0.23
0.02
0.06
21-25
4
98
2.55
1,10
0.46
0.27
0.44
0.03
0.27
5
178
2.56
1.43
0.43
0.21
0.32
0.01
0.10
6
554
2.38
1.27
0.37
0.16
0.39
0.03
0.10
Subject: Occupational Class 7
Adol.-15
4
74
3.14
2.56
0.45
0.04
0.002
0.05
5 i
152
2.70
2.05
0.43
0.06
0.01
0.0003
0.06
6
244
3.00
2.24
0.44
0.02
0.12
0.001
0.10
7
414
3,05
2.39
0.40
0.07
0.08
0.004
0.07
16-20
4
75
3.23
2.21
0.55
0.12
0.30
0.01
0.03
5
155
2.50
1.60
0.47
0.17
0.20
0.02
0.04
6
246
3.18
2.17
0.54
0.14
0.23
0.04
0.07
7
416
3.04
2.12
0.43
0.18
0.23
0.02
0.03
21-25
4
71
2.51
1.37
0.39
0.17
0.58
! 0.01
0.02
5
143
2.43
1.18
0.40
0.17
0.55
i 0.02
! 0.05
6
236
2.88
1.38
0.43
0.23
0.71
t 0.08
i 0.01
7
266
2.71
1.51
0.43
0.23
0.46
0.02
0.02
Table 115. Similarity of sexual frequencies of persons belonging to the same
occupational class
Emphasizing near identity of histories of subjects who reach the same occupational
class, irrespective of the diverse occupational classes of their parents. Showing mean
frequencies for total populations. Medians, incidences, data on active populations,
standard deviations of means, etc., shown for same populations in previous tables
in this chapter.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
443
Questioned concerning his behavior, the young child may deny that he
has ever kissed or been kissed, that he has exposed his genitalia, that he
has touched his own genitalia, that he has allowed other persons to touch
his genitalia, or that he has touched the genitalia of other children. His
denials are made with a nervous haste and apparent discomfort which make
it apparent that he wants to leave the subject and not discuss such things
further. The history of the army colonel who denied that he had ever had
homosexual experience unless it happened at night, when he did not know
anything about it, is matched by the history of the 4-year old boy who
insisted that no other boys had touched him except when he was asleep.
One is concerned not so much with ascertaining the actuality of the child’s
overt experience, but rather with getting some measure of the nature of
his emotional responses; for in those responses one may learn what values
the child has already acquired, and how those values will shape his future
behavior.
2. Social attitudes are acquired long before the child may know that
there is any significance to genital stimulation, much less intercourse. The
so-called sex instruction which is given by parents and schools usually
consists of a certain amount of information concerning the anatomy and
mechanics of reproduction. As far as our present information goes, this
has a minimum of any effect upon the development of patterns of sexual
behavior and, indeed, it may have no effect at all. Patterns of behavior
are the products of attitudes ; and attitudes may begin shaping long before
the child has acquired very much, if any, factual information.
3. Traditional attitudes toward heterosexual and homosexual relation-
ships have been apparent in some of the 3- and 4-year old histories. The
older pre-adolescent boys from upper social levels, however, were often
more willing to admit their homosexual experience, less often willing to
admit their heterosexual relationships. It is apparent that the attitudes of
companions who consider it sissy to play with girls are predominant factors,
both in the development of the child’s attitudes and in the shaping of his
overt activity. By early adolescence, however, it is more difficult to obtain
homosexual data from an upper level group, and simpler to obtain data of
heterosexual contacts. The group has begun to attach values to hetero-
sexuality, it has begun to recognize the taboos which older persons place
on the homosexual. It is the attitude of the group that has changed, and
not the independent thinking of the child.
4. The lower level interest in heterosexual intercourse and frank accep-
tance of it as a pre-marital activity is apparent in the histories of a high
proportion of the 7- and 8-year old boys from those groups; and in some
instances it is well developed as early as age 4. By ages 7 or 8 the lower
level boy knows that intercourse is one of the activities in which most of
his companions, at least his slightly older companions, are engaging; and
444
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
SUBJECT OCCUPATIONAL CLASS 5
PARENT
CLASS MASTURBATION
3
S — I
NOCTURNAL
EMISSIONS
^ s.'
□
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
SDBJKT OCCUPATIONAL CLASS 5
SUBJECT OCCUPATIONAL CLASS 7
Figiire 124. Comparisons of sexual patterns of males of same occupational
class but originating from diverse parental classes
Comparing mean frequency data for the age period 16-20, for three sources of outlet,
for single males of three occupational classes.
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
445
he has already learned that intercourse is one of the things that are con-
sidered highly desirable by those companions. Meanwhile, the 10-year old
boy from the upper level home is likely to confine his pre-adolescent sex
play to the exhibition and manual manipulation of genitalia, and he does
not attempt intercourse because, in many instances, he has not yet learned
that there is such a possibility.
5. Children are the most frequent agents for the transmission of the
sexual mores. Adults serve in that capacity only to a smaller extent. This
will not surprise sociologists and anthropologists, for they are aware of
the great amount of imitative adult activity which enters into the play gf
children, the world around. In this activity, play though it may be, children
are severe, highly critical, and vindictive in their punishment of a child who
does not do it ‘This way,” or “that way.” Even before there has been any
attempt at overt sex play, the child may have acquired a considerable
schooling on matters of sex. Much of this comes so early that the adult has
no memory of where his attitudes w^ere acquired.
6. The mores may be imposed by the children of the community in
defiance of the attempts of adults to impose other patterns. Lower level
parents may punish their children for attempting intercourse, but the lower
level 7-year old assures us with wide open eyes that he cannot understand
why his mother should punish him, and he does not consider it wrong to
attempt intercourse, because all of the other boys are doing it. Upon
securing the history of the boy’s mother, it becomes apparent that the
punishment she gave was quite perfunctory, and that deep in her own think-
ing she does not exactly disapprove of pre-marital sexual relations, any-
way. Even when the parents are sincere in their attempts to impose ideas
that differ from those of the community, the children may triumph over the
parents. Sometimes parents attempt to impose patterns which are stricter
than those in the community. Sometimes they attempt to be more liberal,
and try to raise the child without having it acquire fears and inhibitions
concerning sex. In some cases the parents succeed, but in many cases they
do not. In the further study of this problem it will be important to accumu-
late specific data in such abundance that it will be possible, ultimately,
to measure the relative importance of companions, parents, and other
adults in the establishment of the child’s attitudes and patterns of overt
behavior.
Children are, on the whole, conformists. Their initial experiences with a
particular object or event lead them to believe that the world is made in a
particular way, and they are likely to conclude that the whole world should
be made that way. Any departure in the placement of furniture, in the
style of clothing which is worn, in the way in which food is served, or in
the schedule of the day — the routine which is followed upon getting up in
the morning or upon going to bed at night — may bring protests that “that
446
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
is not the way to do it.” This is the sort of conformance that children are
continually forcing upon each other in regard to all matters, including sex.
7. The record given in this chapter makes it clear that exceedingly few
males modify their attitudes on matters of sex or change their patterns of
overt behavior in any fundamental way after their middle teens. Many
individuals do acquire certain details of activity in their later years, and
some individuals think that they have acquired entirely new attitudes on
matters of sex, at some late period in their lives. Upper level individuals
like to think that they have become more liberal, sexually emancipated,
free of their former inhibitions, rational instead of traditional in their
behavior, ready to experiment with anything. It is notable, however, that
such emancipated persons rarely engage in any amount of actual behavior
which is foreign to the pattern laid down in their youth. Such an individual
may publicly discuss his changed attitudes, and may go so far as to engage
in such a public display of petting as leads the community to believe that
there is considerably more going on; but the actual history is not likely to
contain more than a minimum of non-marital intercourse. The upper level
male who comes back from an army experience with tales of the wild
places where he has been, the freedom of the girls in the tropics, the endless
chances he had for experience of every sort, the record of the particular
girl with whom he became acquainted in this station, and the girl with
whom he got in trouble in another station — may have to admit, when he
contributes an objective record to a scientific study, that he never did
bring himself to having actual intercourse with a single one of the girls.
This is a long way from the sort of promiscuous pattern which is common-
place in lower level histories.
8. While the behavior of the adult is thus controlled by what he calls his
conscience, he is also influenced by such social forces as public opinion.
Among adults, this operates in much the same subtle way that community
attitudes are passed on to the children. The tone of voice in which gossip
is relayed warns the individual to avoid becoming a subject for similar
gossip. The care and circumlocution with which certain matters of sex are
avoided in books, in the press, and in other public communications, con-
stantly remind the individual of the state of public opinion on these things.
Discussions of such things as divorce, marital discord, the sexual scandals
of the community, and the gossip about public characters probably have
more influence in controlling the individual’s behavior than any specific
action that society may take or any legal penalties that are attached to
those things.
9. The church and the other organizations that are chiefly concerned
with problems of morals are, basically, the source of a good deal of the
sexual philosophy of the community (Chapter 13). On occasion the church
specifically condemns departures from its sex code, but more often it
STABILITY OF SEXUAL PATTERNS
447
depends upon the less tangible concepts of purity, cleanliness, sin, un-
cleanliness, degradation. The very indefiniteness of these characterizations
makes them more inclusive. Each individual categorizes himself in accord-
ance with the standards that are set up. He is often more severe to himself
than his fellows would be if they were judging his record. To the religiously
devout, moral values are considerable forces. Nevertheless, the patterns
of the social levels are even more influential than the mandates of a religion
(Chapter 13).
10. The written legal codes and the proscriptions of the common law are
much less influential in controlling the sexual behavior of the human
animal. Patterns of behavior are established long before the child is likely
to have any comprehension of the nature of the legal formalization of our
codes.
These observations may contribute to our understanding of the fact
that individuals in our American society rarely adopt totally new patterns
of sexual behavior after their middle teens. It would appear that the changes
that do occur represent departures made by pre-adolescent and adolescent
children from the patterns of their parents. We have at least progressed in
our understanding of social forces when we have recognized these very
early years as fundamental in the development of both individual and
community patterns of sexual behavior.
Total Outlet: Rural, Urban
AGE
RURAL-
URBAN
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
GROUP
GROUP
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
Incid. Mean
% Frequency
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
2.41 ±0.18
1.33
89.4
2.69 ± 0.20
1.70
Urban
401
3.40 ±0.21
1.98
92.0
3.69 ± 0.22
2.34
16-20
Rural
259
2.81 ±0.20
1.85
96.5
2.91 ±0.20
1.95
Urban
397
3.43 ±0.19
2.37
98.2
3.49 ±0.19
2.43
21-25
Rural
141
2.80 ±0.29
1.56
95.0
2.95 ±0.30
1.78
Urban
188
3.29 ±0.30
1.97
97.9
3.36 ± 0.31
2.01
26-30
Rural
61
3.01 ±0.53
1.40
98.4
3.06 ± 0.54
1.45
Urban
88
3.04 ±0.34
2.08
98.9
3.07 ± 0.34
2.10
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
2.81 ±0.30
1.70
94.4
2.98 ± 0.31
1.86
Urban
459
3.50±0.16
2.51
95.6
3.66 ±0.17
2.64
16-20
Rural
124
3.17 ±0.27
2.43
99.2
3.20 ± 0.27
2.45
Urban
458
3.60±0.15
2.82
99.8
3.61 ±0.15
2.82
21-25
Rural
50
2.53 ±0.37
1.55
98.0
2.58 ± 0.37
1.60
Urban
209
3.17 ±0.21
2.55
99.5
3.19 ± 0.21
2.56
Single Males: Educational Level 13-f
Adol.-15
Rural
352
2.94 ±0.16
2.28
96.3
3.05 ± 0.16
2.38
Urban
2587
2.84 ±0.06
2.20
95.9
2.96 ± 0.06
2.32
16-20
Rural
363
2.52 ±0.10
2.01
99.7
2.53 ±0.11
2.02
Urban
2640
2.77 ±0.05
2.18
99.7
2.78 ±0.05
2.19
21-25
Rural
266
2.17±0.11
1.64
99.2
2.19 ± 0.11
1.66
Urban
1753
2.59 ±0.06
1.93
99.9
2.59 ±0,06
1.93
26-30
Rural
85
2.17 ±0.23
1.46
98 8
2.20 ±0.23
1.48
Urban
445
2.64 ±0.13
1.91
100.0
2.64 ± 0.13
1.91
Mamed Males: Educational Level 0-8
21-25
Rural
128
3.36 ±0.34
2.31
100.0
3.36 ± 0.34
2.31
Urban
162
4.41 ±0.38
2.85
100.0
4.41 ± 0.38
2.85
26-30
Rural
117
3.29 ±0.38
2.09
100.0
3.29 ± 0.38
2.09
Urban
148
3.35 ±0.26
2.58
98.6
3.40 ±0.26
2.63
31-35
Rural
93
2.75 ±0.33
1.74
100.0
2.75 ±0.33
1.74
Urban
109
2.98 ±0.27
2.34
100.0
2.98 ±0.27
2.34
36-40
Rural
84
2.48 ±0.31
1.70
100.0
2.48 ±0.31
1.70
Urban
75
2.53 ±0.25
2.19
100.0
2.53 ±0.25
2.19
Married Males: Educational Level 13 +
21-25
Rural
63
3.85 ±0.46
3.06
100.0
3.85 ±0.46
3.06
Urban
428
3.70 ±0.12
3.12
100.0
3.70 ±0.12
3.12
26-30
Rural
86
3.01 ±0.35
2.41
100.0
3.01 ±0.35
2.41
Urban
516
3.36±0.11
2.76
100.0
3.36 ±0.11
2.76
31-35
Rural
76
2.73 ±0.29
2.24
100.0
2.73 ±0.29
2.24
Urban
402
2.96 ±0.12
2.35
100.0
2.96 ±0.12
2.35
36-40
Rural
50
2.26 ±0.26
2.09
98.0
2.31 ±0.26
2.11
Urban
281
2.70 ±0.15
2.09
100.0
2.70 ± 0.15
2.09
Table 1 16. Total outlet and rural-urban background
448
Chapter 12
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
The city boy’s failure to understand what life can mean to a boy who is
raised on a farm, and the farm boy’s idea that there is something glamor-
ous about the way in which the city boy lives, apply to every avenue of
human activity, including the sexual. This popular interest in knowing how
another group lives is projected into the sociologist’s invariable search for
basic differences between the mores of city groups and the mores of farm
groups ; and this accounts for the fact that the few data which have been
available on the sexual hfe of the rural male have commanded widespread
attention.
Unfortunately, the only specific comparisons of the sexual activities of
rural versus urban groups come from a small study made by Pearl in 1925.
The study covered a limited number of sexual items on 174 older males, of
whom 39 were farmers. The calculations derived from these few cases
seemed to show that the farmers were sexually more active than the
merchants and the bankers, and they in turn were more active than the
professional men. These conclusions have been quoted many times in the
sociological literature, although the data are, of course, altogether too
scant to warrant any generalizations concerning such a tremendous popula-
tion as the rural American group constitutes. It is unfortunate that such
poorly established conclusions should have gained such wide credence,
and particularly unfortunate because the conclusions are diametrically
opposed to what now appears to be the fact. The Pearl series was not
broken down for educational backgrounds or any other social measures of
the individuals involved. Since lower social levels have higher frequencies
of total sexual outlet, particularly of marital intercourse (Table 88), and
since marital intercourse was the only sexual outlet for which Pearl had
data, it is probable that the farmers in the Pearl study rated high in sexual
activity because they belonged to lower educational levels. Conversely, the
merchants, bankers, and professional groups, which constituted the major
portion of Pearl’s urban sample, were from upper white collar and pro-
fessional classes, and these always have lower rates of marital outlet.
Reference to Chapter 3 in the present volume will show the definitions
by which the subjects in the present study have been classified as rural or
urban. It is unfortunate that the limited rural sample which is now avail-
able has made it impossible to make the complete breakdowns which are
shown in Chapter 3, and the analyses in the present chapter have been made
449
450
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
j
Masturbation:
Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
TOTAL population
ACTIVE population
URBAN
CASES
1
GROUP
1
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean j
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Single Males : Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
1.28 =i=0.11
0.75 !
55.0
80.8
1.59 =t:0.13
1.05
Urban
401
1.76 =i=o.ll
0.94 j
52.3
86.8
2.03 =i=0,13
1.19
16-20
Rural
259
0.94 0.07
0.48
33.6
84.9
1.11 =1=0.08
0.66
Urban
397
0.98 0.07
0.45
28.7
84.6
1.16 ± 0.08
0.62
21-25
Rural
141
0.67 0.09
0.21
24.3
63.8
1.05=1=0.13
0.57
Urban
188
0.64 0.08
0.18
19.5
63.3
1.01 =b0.12
0.48
26-30
Rural
61
0.58 =fc:0.12
0.05
19.6
54.1
1.07±0.19
0.71
Urban
88
0.65 =t=0.13
0.11
22.0
64.8
1.01 =1=0.19
0.48
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
AdoL-15
Rural
124
1.66 =1=0,19
0.94
60.8
88.7
1.87=1=0.20
1.19
Urban
459
2.07 =1=0.11
1.34
60.3
90.2
2.29 =±=0.11
1.56
16-20
Rural i
124
1.13 =1=0.15
0.61
35.8
85.5
1.32 =1=0.17
0.82
Urban
458
1.33 =fc 0.07
0.74
37.2
90.2
1.47 =±=0.07
0.87
21-25
Rural
50
0.68 =±=0.16
0.24
27.4
66.0
1.03 =1=0.23
0.61
Urban
209
0.92=1=0.09
0.41
30.0
78.9
1.17=1=0.10
0.66
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
Urban
352
2587
2.28 =1=0.13
2.24 =fc 0.05
1.76
1.60
79.1
79.9
84.1
82.1
2.71 =1=0.14
2.73 =1=0.06
2.17
2.08
16-20
Rural
Urban
363
2640
1.67 ±0.08
1.86 ±0.04
1.18
1.22
67.3
67.0
89.0
88.9
1.88 =t: 0.09
2.09 =±=0.05
1.44
1.54
21-25
Rural
Urban
266
1753
1.19 =1=0.08
1.35=1=0.04
0.79
0.67
56.4
52.9
86.1
87.5
1.38 =1=0.08
1.54=1=0.05
0.95
0.85
26-30
Rural
Urban
85
445
1.09=1=0.16
1.15 =1=0.08
0.48
0.49
50.6
43.5
78.8
85.6
1.39 =t 0.19
1.34=1=0.09
0.94
0.68
Table 117. Masturbation and rural-urban background
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET 451
on a simpler basis. They must be taken as indications of trends which will
have to be analyzed more precisely when more material is available.
Throughout this chapter persons have been classified as rural if they
ever belonged to the rural-urban group which is numbered 3 (Chapter 3),
either alone or in conjunction with some other rating which they held at
some other period of their fives. This means that they have been considered
rural if they lived on an operating farm for an appreciable portion of the
years between 12 and 18. This is the late pre-adolescent and adolescent
period which is so important in the shaping of sexual patterns (Chapter 1 1).
Persons have been classified as urban if they ever belonged to rural-urban
groups 0, 1, or 4, or to some combination of these groups, without ever
belonging to class 3. This means they have been rated as urban if they never
had more than incidental residence in rural areas, or if their rural residence
occurred only after the age of 18, which is the age by which most of the
patterns of sexual behavior are already laid down (Chapter 1 1). Rural-
urban group 2 was not used because the sample was too small. As treated
in the present chapter, the rural group is very definitely rural, but the
urban group involves some individuals who have had chiefly city residence
but some less significant rural contacts. It is unfortunate that no finer
breakdown could be made with the material available at this time.
FREQUENCIES OF TOTAL OUTLET
For the population as a whole, it has been shown that frequencies of
sexual outlet depend upon the age of the individual, the age at which he
became adolescent, his educational background and occupational class,
and his religious background. This is equally true of the rural portion of
the population and of the urban portion of the population, and no com-
parison of the frequencies of total sexual outlet or of the sexual outlet from
the several sorts of sexual activity can mean much unless there is a prelimi-
nary breakdown on most of these other factors.
An examination of Table 116 will show that the differences between the
total outlet of the rural males and the total outlet of the urban males are
never very great. In general, the differences would not be particularly
significant if they did not all fie in the same direction, which is almost
without exception in the direction of a lower frequency of total sexual out-
let for the rural males. The differences are most marked in the lower
educational level, where the rural males may not have more than three-
fourths as frequent activity as the urban males. Differences are less
for the males of the high school level and among the boys who go to
college.
City-bred persons might expect the farm boy to have higher rates of
outlet, inasmuch as he sees sexual activity among animals and hears free
discussion of sex from the time he is very young; but the specific data do
452
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions: Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
URBAN
CASES
GROUP
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Single Males : Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
0.05 0.015
0.00
2.3
22.9
0.24 ±0.056
0.08
Urban
401
0.06 ±0.011
0.00
1.7
27.4
0.21 ± 0.038
0.08
16-20
Rural
259
0.13 ±0.019
0.01
4.8
53.3
0.25 ±0.033
0.08
Urban
397
0.17 ± 0.019
0.03
5.0
58.2
0.29 ± 0.030
0.09
21-25
Rural
141
0.17 ± 0.030
0.03
6.3
57.4
0.30 ±0.049
0.10
Urban
188
0.16 ±0.024
0.03
4.7
60.1
0.26 ±0.038
0.09
26-30
Rural
61
0.18 ±0.041
0.05
5.9
65.6
0.27 ± 0.059
0.10
Urban
88
0.19 ±0.039
0.04
6.3
63.6
0.29 ±0.059
0.09
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
0.11 ±0.025
0.00
4.0
34.7
0.31 ± 0.063
0.15
Urban
459
0.17 ±0.026
0.00
4.9
41,8
0.40 ± 0.057
0.12
16-20
Rural
124
0,20 ±0.031
0.06
6.3
71.8
*0.28 ±0.039
0.11
Urban
458
0.24 ±0.022
0.07
6.6
71.0
0.33 ±0.029
0.14
21-25
Rural
50
0.21 ±0.047
0.07
8.5
74.0
0.29 ±0.059
0.13
Urban
209
0.25 ±0.026
0.08
8.1
70.3
0.35 ±0.034
0.23
Single Males: Educational Level 13-}-
Adol.-15
Rural
Urban
352
2587
0.27 ±0.031
0.36 ±0.014
0.06
0.12
9.3
12.7
61.9
71.8
0.43 ±0.047
0.50 ± 0.019
0.25
0.28
16-20
Rural
Urban
363
2640
0.44 ±0.035
0.42 ±0.012
0.26
0.25
17.6
15.2
92.0
90.7
0.47 ±0.038
0.47 ±0.013
0.29
0.29
21-25
Rural
Urban
266
1753
0.39 ±0.038
0.39 ±0.014
0.25
0.22
18.7
15.2
89.5
86.0
0.44 ±0.041
0.45 ±0.016
0.29
0.28
26-30
Rural
Urban
85
445
0.29 ±0.030
0.32 ±0.022
0.22
0.18
13.6
12.0
85.9
84.0
0.34 ± 0.033
0.38 ±0.025
0.08
0.25
Table 118. Nocturnal emissions and rural-urban background
RtJRAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
453
not bear out such an idea. In fact, it might be possible to theorize to the
effect that early and constant acquaintance with sex would reduce the
farm boy’s erotic responses and leave him less interested; but this still
remains unproved theory. The average city dweller thinks of the farm boy
as having more privacy than the city boy has for carrying on socio-sexual
activities, but the theory does not seem to fit the fact. There is a general
opinion that rural communities are in general stricter in their religious
adherence than city communities, and this may be one of the explanations
of the slightly lower rates of rural groups, but this is not demonstrable with
the present data. It might be suggested that the city boy has more oppor-
tunity for making social contacts in general, for dating girls and, conse-
quently, for obtaining sexual relations with girls ; and this may, or may not,
be an explanation of the fact that socio-sexual contacts are in actuality
less frequent for the boy who is raised on the farm. There are other possible
explanations of the lower rates of the rural males, but none of these is more
than a possibility which will need investigation when suflScient series of
cases become available,
SPECIFIC SEXUAL OUTLETS
Masturbation. Self-induced orgasm occurs in almost exactly the same
proportions of the rural and of the urban populations (Table 117). Fre-
quencies are rather lower for the youngest adolescent group of farm boys
who never go beyond eighth grade or high school; but at all ages the fre-
quencies among the boys who will ultimately go to college are practically
identical for the rural and for the urban groups. Since the total outlet of
the rural male is a bit lower, and since the actual frequencies of masturba-
tion are about the same as those of the urban group, the part of the total
outlet which the farm boy derives from masturbation is a bit higher at all
ages and in all educational levels.
Nocturnal Emissions. These occur with much the same incidences and
frequencies among the rural and the urban groups. This is true at all ages,
and in all social levels (Table 118). In the few places where the table indi-
cates some differences, there are no consistent trends.
Petting to Climax. Orgasm achieved through heterosexual petting occurs
in a definitely higher percentage of the urban males (Table 119). The fre-
quencies are somewhat higher for the urban males who do not go beyond
eighth grade or high school, but at the college level the frequencies of pet-
ting are 2.5 to 3 times as high among the urban males. Perhaps the farm
boy is not so often kivolved because girls simply are not so available in
a rural community; or perhaps he is not so often involved because the
smaller community has not yet acquired the newer customs that are found
in the city. The fact will have to be determined by a detailed examination
of more histories.
454
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Petting to Climax: Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
TOTAL population
ACTIVE POPULATION
URBAN
CASES
GROUP
Me-
%0f
Me-
Mean
dian
Total
Incid.
Mean
dian
Frequency
Freq.
Outlet
%
Frequency
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
0,017^0.006
0.00
0.7
11.8
0.14 =b 0.043
'0.06
Urban
401
0.037=h0.011
0.00
1.1
13.7
0.27 ±0.078
0.07
16-20
Rural
259
0.043=1=0.012
0.00
1.5
17.8
0.24 ± 0.059'
0.07
Urban
397
0.058=fc0.015
0.00
1.7 '
22.4
0.26 =±: 0.064
0.07
21-25
Rural
141
0.031=1=0.013
0.00
1.1
12.8
0.24 =1=0.085
0.08
Urban
188
0.047=^=0.023
0.00
1.4
16.5
0.28 =1=0.070
0.07
26-30
Rural
61
0,11 =±=0.065
0.00
3.8
21.3
0.53 =±=0.28
0.20
; Urban
88
0.017=1=0.009
0.00 1
0.6
17.0
0.10 =1=0.049
0.06
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
0,021=1=0.008
0.00
0.8
17.7
0.12 =1=0.038
0.06
Urban
459
0.059 ±0.013
0.00
1.7
19.6
0,30 =1=0.060
0.07
16-20
Rural
124
0.040=1=0.011
0.00
1.3 i
30.6
0.13 ± 0.0291
0.07
Urban
458
0.095=1=0.015
0.00
2.7
34.3
0.28 =1=0.038
0.08
21-25
Rural
50
0.034=1=0.012
0.00
1.4
28.0
0.12 =1=0.032
0.08
Urban
209
0.094=1=0.019
0.00
3.0
29.2
0.32 =±0.072
0.08
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
352
0.019=1=0.006
0.00
0.7
11.1
0.17 =±0.053
0.07
Urban
2587
0.045±0.005
0.00
1.6
13.9
0.33 =±0.027
0.09
16-20
Rural
363
0,074=1=0.013
0.00
3.0
33.5
0.21 =±0.034
0.07
Urban
2640
0.15 =1=0.008
0.00
5.6 ^
47,7
0.32 =±0.016
0.09
21-25
Rural
266
0.081=1=0.012
0.00
3.8
43.6
0.19 =±0.025
0.07
: Urban
1753
0.20 =±0.012
0.02
7,9
54.5
0.37 =±0.021
0.11
26-30
Rural
85
0.063 =±0.014
0.00
2.9
43.5
0.14 =±0.026
0.08
Urban
445
0.16 =±0.019
0.00
5.9
47.2
0.33 =±0.037
0.10
Table 119. Petting to climax and rural-urban background
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
455
Pre-marital Intercourse. The diiTerences between rural and urban groups
are greater in regard to pre-marital intercourse than they are for any of the
preceding activities. In most age groups and at all educational levels, more
of the city boys are involved and fewer of the farm boys (Table 120). At the
grade school level, 91 per cent of the city boys may be involved between the
ages of 21 and 25, but only 80 per cent of the farm boys. At the college
level in the same age period, 55 per cent of the city boys have some pre-
marital intercourse and about 47 per cent of the farm boys. The differences
in frequencies of pre-marital intercourse between rural and urban groups
are of about the same order.
Intercourse with Prostitutes. Pre-marital relations with prostitutes are
even more distinctively an activity of the city group (Table 121). While it
is commonly beheved that farm boys are particularly interested in securing
intercourse with prostitutes when they go into the city, the record indicates
that fewer of them ever arrive at such experience. The frequency with
which they have relations with prostitutes is definitely lower than the
frequency with which city boys have such relations.
Marital Intercourse. In marital relations, the rural male again has a
slightly lower rate of outlet than the city male (Table 122). The differences
are not great but are consistent in several groups, as far as our limited data
apply.
Homosexual Outlet. Orgasm effected by contacts with other males is,
on the whole, less frequent among the farm boys who have contributed
histories to this study, more frequent among the urban males (Table 123).
The two groups are most distinct at the grade school and high school
levels. The differences in incidence are very minor at the college level.
Among the boys who have not gone beyond grade school, 32 per cent of
the city boys may be involved between the ages of 16 and 20, but only 21
per cent of the farm boys. Among males of the high school level, at a
corresponding age, the figures are 46 per cent for the city boys, 26 per cent
for the rural. For the boys of the college level, in the same age group, the
figures are very nearly identical, 16 or 17 per cent in both groups. Differ-
ences in frequencies are of the same general order, with the city boy having
the most frequent contacts.
There is a wide-spread theory among psychologists and psychiatrists
that the homosexual is a product of an effete and over-organized urban
civilization. The failure to make heterosexual adjustments is supposed to
be consequent on the complexities of life in our modern cities ; or it is a
product of a neuroticism which the high speed of living in the city imposes
upon an increasing number of individuals. The specific data on the partic-
ular rural and urban groups which are shown in Table 123 do seem to
suggest that there is something in city life which encourages the develop-
Total Non-marttal Intercourse: Rural, Urban
AGE
RURAL-
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
GROUP
URBAN
GROUP
Ci^iSES
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
1
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
16-20
21-25
Rural
Urban
Rural
Urban
Rural
Urban
199 0.67 ±0.12
414 1.26 ±0.14
208 1.26 ±0.15
406 1.99 ±0.16
106 1.40 ±0.24
195 2.35 ±0.26
0.00
0.03
0.43
0.89
0.49
0.96
31.3
39.9
50.2
60.2
56.2
69.5
39.2
51.4
81.3
87.4
80.2
90.8
1.72 ±0.27
2.45 ±0.24
1.55 ±0.17
2.27 ±0.17
1.75 ±0.29
2.59 ±0.28
0.91
1.39
0.72
1.25
0.83
1.43
Single Males: Educational Level
9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
91 0.57 ±0.12
0.00
21.4 J
38.5
1.47 ±0.26
0.86
Urban
405 0.87 ±0.12
0.00
26.6
44.2
1.97 ±0.25
0.81
16-20
Rural
95 1.48 ±0.18
0.70
46.2
87.4
1.69 ±0.20
1.00
Urban
405 1.40 ±0.14
0.41
40.8 i
1 1
72.6
1.92 ±0.18
0.87
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
265 0.08 ±0.03
0.00
2.9
10.6
0.77 ±0.23
0.31
Urban
2126 0.08 ±0.01
0.00
4.2
9.7
0.84 ±0.10
0.29
16-20
Rural
272 0.19 ±0.04
0.00
8.0
36.4
0.53 ±0.11
0.10
Urban
2172 0.26 ±0.02
0.00
13.8
42.5
0.62 *0.04
0.18
21-25
Rural
200 0.34 ±0.07
0.00
16.7
47.0
0.73 ±0.13
0.25
Urban
1377 0.45 ±0.03
0.03
19.3
55.0
0.82 ±0.06
0.30
26-30
Rural
58 0.48 ±0.15
0.00
23.4
44.8
1.06 ±0.31
0.54
Urban
308 0.68 ±0.09
0.06
21.4
58.8
1.16 ±0.15
0.47
Married Males: Educational Level 0-8
21-25
Rural
128 0.14 ±0.042
0.00
4.1
25.0
0.55 ±0.14
0.27
Urban
162 0.73 ±0.21
0.00
16.1
40.7
1.78 *0.50
0.30
26-30
Rural
117 0.15 ±0.047
0.00
4.6
29.9
0.51 ±0.14
0.22
Urban
148 0.23 ±0.066
0.00
7.0
35.1
0.67 ±0.17
0.12
31-35
Rural
93 0.18 ±0.061
0.00
6.5
22.6
0.78 ±0.23
0.43
Urban
109 0.10 ±0.024
0.00
3.5
36.7
0.28 ±0.06
0.10
Married Males: Educational Level 13+
21-25
Rural
63
0.16 ±0.14
0.00
4.0
9.5
1.68 ±1.42'
0.35
Urban
428
0.05 ±0.011
0.00
1.4
15.7
0.32 ±0.06
0.10
26-30
Rural
86
0.12 *0.092
0.00
3.9
9.3
1.27 ±0,94
0.40
Urban
516
0.09 ±0.016
0.00
2.8
25.2
0.37 ±0.06
0.09
31-35
Rural
76
0.07 ±0.045
0.00
2.5
10.5
0.64 ±0.39
0.30
Urban
402
0.16 ±0.032
0.00
5.6
34.1
0.48 ±0.09
0.17
Table 120. Total non-marital intercourse and rural-urban background
456
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
457
ment of the homosexual. But the distinctive thing about homosexuality in
the city is the development of a more or less organized group activity
which is unknown in any rural area.
Large cities have taverns, night clubs, restaurants, and baths which may
become frequented almost exclusively by persons interested in meeting
homosexual friends, or interested in finding opportunities for discussions
with others who do not object to the known homosexuality of their com-
panions. In this city group, the development of an elaborate argot gives a
sense of belonging which may defend a minority group against the rest of
society; but it also intensifies a feeling which the group has that it stands
apart from the rest of the population. Moreover, it is this city group which
exhibits all the affectations, the mannerisms, the dress, and the other dis-
plays which the rest of the population take to be distinctive of all homo-
sexual persons, even though it is only a small fraction of the males with
homosexual histories who ever display such characteristics. None of these
city-bred homosexual institutions is known in rural areas, and this may
well acount for a somewhat lower rate of the homosexual among farm boys.
On the other hand, the highest frequencies of the homosexual which we
have ever secured anywhere have been in particular rural communities in
some of the more remote sections of the country. The boy on the isolated
farm has few companions except his brothers, the boys on an adjacent
farm or two, visiting male cousins, and the somewhat older farm hand.
His mother may see to it that he does not spend much time with his sisters,
and the moral codes of the rural community may impose considerable
limitations upon the association of boys and girls under other circum-
stances. Moreover, farm activities call for masculine capacities, and asso-
ciations with girls are rated sissy by most of the boys in such a community.
All of these things are conducive to a considerable amount of homosexual-
ity among the teen-age males in the most isolated of the rural areas. There
is much less of it in the smaller farm country of the Eastern United States.
Beyond this, there is a fair amount of sexual contact among the older
males in Western rural areas. It is a type of homosexuality which was prob-
ably common among pioneers and outdoor men in general. Today it is
found among ranchmen, cattle men, prospectors, lumbermen, and farming
groups in general — among groups that are virile, physically active. These
are men who have faced the rigors of nature in the wild. They five on reah-
ties and on a minimum of theory. Such a background breeds the attitude
that sex is sex, irrespective of the nature of the partner with whom the
relation is had. Sexual relations are had with women when they are avail-
able, or with other males when outdoor routines bring men together into
exclusively male groups. Such a pattern is not at aU uncommon among
pre-adolescent and early adolescent males in such rural areas, and it con-
tinues in a number of histories into the adult years and through marriage.
458
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Intercourse with Prostitutes:
: Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
URBAN
CASES
TOTAL population '
ACTIVE population
GROUP
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
7oOf
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
0.012±0.005
0.00
0.5
5.3
0.22 ±0.08
0.09
Urban
401
0.041^0.012
0.00
1.2
10.0
0.41 =b0.11
0.15
16-20 i
Rural
259
0.15 =fc0.025
0.00
5.4
42.5
0.35 ±0.05
0.09
Urban
397
0.23 =b0.029
0.01
6.6
50.9 1
0.45 ±0.05
0.20
21-25
Rural
141
0.31 =1=0.067
1 0.003
11.1
50.4
0.61 ±0.12
0.25
Urban
1 188
0.46 =b0.067
|0.12
14.0
66.5
0.69 ±0.10
0.36
26-30
Rural
61
0.50 ±0.14
1
0.07
16.9
65.6
%,
0.76 ±0.20
0.32
Urban
88
[0.57 ±0.095
0.25
19.2
75.0
jO.76 ±0.12
0.42
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
0.004±0.003
0.00 1
0.2
4.8
0.09 ± 0.041
0.07
Urban
459
0.017±0.005
0.00 i
0.5
8.1
0.21 ±0.046
0.08
16-20
Rural
124
0.10 ±0.03l'
0.00
3.3
41.1
0.25 ± 0.070
0.07
Urban
458
0.097±0.013i
0.00
2.7
40.8
0.24 ± 0.029
0,08
21-25
Rural
50
0.19 ±0.071
0.00
7.8
48.0
0.40 ±0.14
0.13
Urban
209
0.12 ±0.019
0.00
3.9
40.7
0.29 ±0.040
0.11
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
352
0.002±0.001
0.00
0.1
2.0
0.12 ±0.045
0.08
Urban
2587
0.003 ±0.001
0.00
0.1
2.2
0.12 ±0.033
0.06
16-20
Rural
363
0.011 ±0.002
0.00
0.4
12.9
0.08 ±0.012
0.06
Urban
2640
0.021 ±0.002
0.00
0.8
19.9
0.11 ±0.008
0.06
21-25
Rural
266
0.013±0.003
0.00
0.6
15.8
0.08 ±0.013
0.06
Urban
1753
0.032±0.007
0.00
1.3
17.6
0.18 ±0.040
0.07
26-30
Rural
85
0.007±0,004
0.00
0.3
7.1
0.09 ±0.041
0.07
Urban
445
0.097±0.040
0.00
3.7
19.1
0.51 ±0.20
0.08
Table 121. Intercourse with prostitutes and rural-urban background
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
459
Such a group of hard-riding, hard-hitting, assertive males would not
tolerate the affectations of some city groups that are involved in the homo-
sexual; but this, as far as they can see, has little to do with the question of
having sexual relations with other men. This type of rural homosexuality
contradicts the theory that homosexuality in itself is an urban product.
Marital Intercourse: Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
URBAN
CASES
total population
ACTIVE POPULATION
GROUP
'
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%af
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Educational Level 0-8
21-25
Rural
128
3.03 ±0.31
1.99
90.6
100.0
3.03 ±0.31
1.99
Urban
162
3.44 =t= 0.28
2,38
76.3
98.1
3.51 =±=0.28
2.42
26-30
Rural
117
2.90=^0.36
1.83
88.5
100.0
2.90=^0.36
1.83
Urban
148
2.86 =±=0.21
2.33
86.0
98.6
2.90 =±=0.21
2.35
31-35
Rural
93
2.39 =±=0.29
1.58
88.1
100.0
2.39 =±=0.29
1.58
Urban
109
2.73 =i= 0.25
2.18
91.9
100.0
2.73 =±=0.25
2.18
36-40
Rural
84
2.21 =±=0.28
1.54
91.4
100.0
2.21 =±=0.28
1 1.54
Urban
75
2.23 =±=0.24
1.95
89.2
98.7
2.26 =±=0.24
1.98
Educational Level 13-f
21-25
Rural
63
3.34=1=0.47
2.65
84.6
100.0
3.34=1=0.47
2.65
Urban
428
3.07 ±0.11
2.58
84.1
99.5
3.08 =1=0.11
2.59
i
26-30 :
Rural
86
2.49=1=0.29
1.93
82.9
100.0
2.49 =1=0.29
1.93
Urban
516
2.77 ±0.10
2.23
83.1
99.2
2.79 =±=0.10
2.25
31-35
Rural
76
2.22=1=0.24
1.85
82.2
100.0
2.22=^0.24
1.85
Urban
402
2.38 =±=0.11
1.91
81.1
99.5
2.40 =±=0.11
1.92
36-40
Rural
50
1.77=1=0.22
1.53
79.2
98.0
1.81 =1=0.22
1.56
Urban
281
2.06 =±=0.12
1.66
76.6
98.9
2.09 =±=0.12
1.67
Table 122. Marital intercourse and rural-urban background
Animal Contacts. Sexual relations with animals of other species are, of
necessity, most often found in rural areas. Ultimately about 17 per cent of
the farm boys have complete sexual relations with other animals (Table
124), and perhaps as many more have relations which are not carried
through to climax.
460
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Homosexual Outlet: Rural, Urban
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
total population
ACTIVE POPULATION
URBAN
CASES
GROUP
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
°/
/o
Mean
Frequency
i
Me-
dian
Freq.
Single Males : Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
0.18 0.039
0.00
7.7
18.4
0.98 ±0.17
0.46
Urban
401
0.32 ±0.051
0.00
9.5
28.4
1.12 ±0.16
0.44
16-20
Rural
259
0.21 ±0.054
0.00
7.4
21.2
0.97 ±0.23
0.37
Urban
397
0.26 ±0.037
0.00
7.6
32.0
0.81 ±0.10
0.34
21-25
Rural
141
0.26 ±0.11
0.00
: 9.4
17.0
1.52 ±0.61
0.43
LTrban
188
0.26 ±0.058
0.00
! 7.9
28.7
0.91 ±0.17
0.41
26-30
Rural
61
0.53 ±0.33
0.00
18.0
19.7
2.71 ±1.57
0.75
Urban
88
0.34 ±0.097
0.00
11.6
35.2
0.98 ±0.24
0.44
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
0.26 ±0.13
0.00
9.6
20.2
1.30±0.60
0.10
Urban
459
0.32 ±0.037
0.00
9.3
37.9
0.84 ±0.09
0.33
16-20
Rural
124
0.10 ±0.031^
0.00
3.2
25.8
0.39 ±0.10
0.08
Urban
458
0.50 ±0.060
0.00
14.1
46.7
1.07 ±0.12
0.37
21-25
Rural
50
0.10 ±0.051
0.00
3.9
24.0
0.40 ±0.19
0.09
Urban
209
0.69 ±0.13
0.00
22.4
42.6
1.61 ±0.27
0.89
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
352
0.08 ±0.019
0.00
2.7
21.3
0.36 ±0.08
0.09
Urban
2587
0.09 ±0.008
0.00
3.2
21.8
0.41 ±0.03
0.09
16-20
Rural
363
0.05 ±0.013
0.00
2.1
16.8
0.32 ±0.07
0.09
Urban
2640
0.07 ±0.008
0.00
2.4
15.8
0.42 ±0.04
0.08
21-25
Rural
266
0.06 ±0.022
0.00
2.8
9.4
0.62 ±0.21
0.15
Urban
1753
0.09 ±0.012
0.00
3.4
10.1
0.85 ±0.10
0.24
26-30
Rural
85
0.10 ±0.042
0.00
4.9
15.3
0.68 ±0.22
0.39
Urban
445
0.22 ± 0.036
' 0.00
8.3
16.9
1.30 ±0.16
0.63
Table 123. Homosexual outlet and rural-urban background
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
461
Animal Contacts: Rur^l
AGE
GROUP
RURAL-
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
URBAN
CASES
GROUP
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
%0f
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Frequency
Me-
dian
Freq.
Educational Level 0-8
Adol.-15
Rural
245
0.054=1=0.018
0.00
2.3
8.6
0.63 =fc:0.16
0.50
Urban
401
0.011=1=0.006
0.00
0.3
4.0
0.28 =1=0.13
0.08
16-20
Rural
259
0.034^0.012
0.00
1.2
7.3
0.46 =1=0.13
0.26
Urban
397
0,012±0,008
0.00
0.3
2.0
0.58 =b 0.35
0.09
Educational Level 9-12
Adol.-15
Rural
124
0.038=1=0.020
0.00
1.4
10.5
0.36 =1=0.17
0.10
Urban
459
0.018=t=0.008
0.00
0.5
3.7
0.48 =±=0.19
0.09
16-20
Rural
124
0.092^0.040
0.00
2.9
10.5
0.88 =1=0.32
0.40
Urban
458
0.017=^0.010
0.00
0.5
2.6
0.65 =1=0.33
0.09
21-25
Rural
50
0.013=^0.008
0.00
0.5
6.0
0.22=^0.08
0.30
Urban
209
0.014=^0.013
0.00
0.5
1.9
0.74=1=0.69
0.08
Educational Level 13+
Adol.-15
Rural
352
Urban
2587
16-20
Rural
363
Urban
2640
21-25
Rural
266
Urban
1753
26-30
Rural
85
Urban
445
0.14 =1=0.039
0.00
4.7
0.003=1=0.001
0.00
0.1
0.070=1=0.028
0.00
2.8
0.001=1=0.001
0.00
0.02
0.015=1=0.008
0.00
0.7
0.0001=1=
0.0004
0.00
0.002
0.009=1=0.009
0.00
0.4
0.0002=±=
0.00011
0.00
0.0004
27.8
1.9
0.49 =1=0.13
0.14=1=0.05
0.08
0.06
15.4
0.7
0.46 =t: 0.18
0.12 =±=0.07
0.10
0.06
3.8
0.40=1=0.17
0.25
0.1
0.05
0.08
1.2
0.80
1.00
0.4
0.05
0.08
Table 124. Animal contacts and rural-urban background
462
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
tone
LEVEL
RURAL
0-8
UR6AM
RURAL
9-(Z
URBAN
RURAL
13 +
URBAN
MASTURBATION
PETTING TO CLIMAX
TOTAL INTERCOURSE
INTERCOURSE
WITH PROSTITUTES
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
ANIMAL INTERCOURSE
RURAL
Figure 125. Comparisons of sexual activity in rural and urban groups
Comparing mean frequency data for the age period 1 6-20, for three educational levels.
Black bars for urban population, shaded bars for rural groups.
RURAL-URBAN BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
463
There is, of course, a considerable amount of pre-adolescent contact with
animals (Chapter 5). Among adolescent and older males of the rural
groups, the lowest incidences of animal contacts are to be found in Eastern
areas. The incidences increase considerably in the ranch country of the
West. For the available rural sample, which is largely Eastern in origin,
the active incidence figures begin at about 9 per cent in the early adoles-
cent years of the group which never goes beyond grade school, and grades
down to about 3 per cent for males of that educational level who are not
yet married between the ages of 21 and 25. Among the rural boys who go
into high school but not beyond, the active incidence figures stand at about
1 1 per cent between adolescence and 20 years of age. For the rural boys
who will ultimately go to college, about 28 per cent have animal contacts
between adolescence and 15, about 15 per cent in the late teens, and 4 per
cent in the early twenties. Sexual contacts with animals are, it will be seen,
most abundant among boys of the college level during their early and
later teens.
Surprisingly enough, in the grade school portion of the urban population
the boys have an appreciable amount of animal intercourse. About 4 per
cent of these boys are involved between adolescence and 15. However,
the frequencies for the city boys are very low, not amounting to more than
a half to a fifth of the frequencies found among rural males. At the high
school level, and particularly at the college level, there are fewer (1 to 4 per
cent) of the city boys who are involved, and the discrepancies between
the rural and the urban histories become very great on this point. For
instance, the incidence among males of the college level, at 16-20 years of
age, is 0.7 per cent for the city-bred boys and 15.4 per cent for the farm
group. The differences in frequencies are even greater, the farm boys having
30 to 70 experiences for every one which the city boy has.
It is, of course, surprising to find that the city boy is ever involved,
because he does not have such access to animals as the farm boy has. The
city boy’s contacts usually occur when he is visiting on a farm, and so in
actuality this still remains rural behavior. In the city itself he may have
contact with horses or ponies in some stable, or with some other animal
in a city stockyard; but most of his contacts are with the household pets,
particularly with pet dogs.
The absolute frequencies of animal contact are, in actuality, low. In a
high proportion of the histories they are isolated occurrences, or events
that happen two or three or a half dozen times in the boy’s early adoles-
cence. With a few individuals they may occur several times a week, and
there are some cases of farm boys who depend upon this source for their
major outlet. In Western farm areas there are more boys who have animal
contacts with weekly or bi-weekly regularity through their early and per-
haps later teens, and occasionally into their early twenties.
16
464
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
In summary, it may be emphasized again that there are few material
differences between the histories of farm boys and the histories of boys
raised in the city, or between adult males living in the two places. In general
there are slightly lower frequencies of total sexual activity in the rural
population, and lower frequencies in most of the particular sources of
outlet. Nocturnal emissions occur with nearly identical incidences and
frequencies in rural and in urban groups. The rural population is most
distinct in having fewer socio-sexual contacts (meaning pre-marital hetero-
sexual petting, pre-marital and extra-marital intercourse, and homosexual
relations), and in its much higher frequencies of animal intercourse. But
the city boy’s interest in animal contacts as soon as they are available
makes it clear that it is simply a question of opportunity which differen-
tiates the rural and urban groups on this latter point.
Chapter 13
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
In the broadest sense, the mores may become systems of morals and
systems of morals are formalizations of the mores. It is no accident that
the two words, mores and morals, stem from the same Latin root. Through-
out history all peoples have defended their mores as stoutly as they have
defended their religions, and their moral systems have determined the
custom of the land. Sexual mores and systems of sexual morality are no
exceptions to this general rule.
This means that there is nothing in the English- American social structure
which has had more influence upon present-day patterns of sexual be-
havior than the religious backgrounds of that culture. It would require
long research and a complete volume to work out the origins of the present-
day religious codes which apply to sex, of the present-day sex mores, of
the coded sex laws, and to trace the subtle ways in which these have in-
fluenced the behavior of individuals (Northcote 1916, Angus 1925, May
1931). Our particular systems certainly go back to the Old Testament
philosophy on which the Talmud is based, and which was the philosophy
of those Jews who first followed the Christian faith. In many details, the
proscriptions of the Talmud are nearly identical with those of our present-
day legal codes governing sexual behavior. Back of the Jewish formula-
tions were the older codes of such peoples as the Hittites (Barton 1925),
Babylonians (Harper 1904), Assyrians (Barton 1925), and Egyptians
(Budge 1 895), all of whom probably had a part in shaping the sexual
systems of the early Jews. Several Roman ascetic cults had a consid-
erable influence on the asceticism of the early Christian church, and
Greek philosophy in a more general way contributed to Christian ethics,
both in the early days of the church and in the middle ages.
Ecclesiastic law governing sexual matters set the pattern from which
the sex law of English common courts was derived between the twelfth
and fifteenth centuries, and irrespective of the specific statutes which the
several states have written to control sexual behavior, the decisions of
American criminal courts today are primarily based upon the precedents
of those common courts. This is no place to work out the details of the
historic development, but it is important at this point to reahze that these
present-day codes are quite ancient, that they are the product of stiU
older rehgious systems, and that throughout their history they have been
465
466
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Outlet and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Median
Incid.
Mean
Median
Frequency
Freq.
%
Frequency
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adol -15
Protestant, active
89 ■
2.65
±0.40
1.30
83.1
3.18
±0.46^
1.89
Protestant, inactive
481
3.09
±0.17
1.78
93.8
3.29
± 0.18:
2.03
Catholic, inactive
106
3.21
± 0. 34
2.04
90.6
3.55
±0,36]
2.46
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
91
2.73
±0.37
1.50
93.4
2.93
±0.39
1.71
Protestant, inactive
493
3.31
± 0.17
2.24
98.2
3.37
± 0.17
2.29
Catholic, inactive
105
3.42
±0.30
2.57
98.1
3.49
±0.30
2.64
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
234
3.22
± 0.27
2.03
97.9
3.29
± 0.27
2.08
Catholic, inactive
60
3.27
±0.40
2.21
98.3
3.33
± 0.40
2.25
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active :
93 .
2.61 ± 0.27
1.71
i
1
92.5 :
2,83 ± 0.28'
1.85
Protestant, inactive
375 ,
3.38 ±0.18
2.33 ,
95.2 ,
3.55 ± 0.19
2.48
Catholic, inactive
103 .
3.85 ±0.43
2.58
98.1
3.93 ± 0.43
2.67
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
95
2.52 ±0.23
1.69
100.0 :
1
2.52 ± 0.23’
1.69
Protestant, inactive ,
315
3.53 ± 0.191
2.67 '
99.0
3.57 ± 0.19
2.71
Catholic, inactive
101
4.36±0.40|
3.15 ^
100.0
4.36 ±0.40i
1
3.15
Single Males: Educational Level 13 -f
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
547
2.48 ±0.10
1.98
95.4
2.60 ±0.10
2.10
Protestant, inactive
1471
3.04 ±0.07
2.45 ,
96.0
3.17 ± 0.08i
2.58
Catholic, devout
132
2.44 ±0.26
1.60
97.7 ,
2.50 ± 0.26
1.65
Catholic, inactive
165
3.03 ±0.23
2.16 '
95.2
3.19 ± 0.24'
2.26
Jewish, Orthodox
58 ,
1.96 ±0.27
1.28 ,
91.4
2.14 ± 0.28
1.40
Jewish, inactive
601
2.91 ±0.13
2.17
96.0
3.03 ± 0.13
2.29
Age: 16-20
1
Protestant, active
557
2.31 ±0.08
1.83
99.6
2.32 ± 0.08
1.83
Protestant, inactive '
1513
2.87 ±0.06
2.36
99.7
2.88 ± 0.06
2.37
Catholic, devout
136
2.42 ±0.20
1.70
; 100.0
2.42 ±0.20
1.70
Catholic, inactive
168
2.79 ±0.19
2.18
99.4
2.81 ± 0.19
2.19
Jewish, Orthodox ,
59
1.97 ±0.21
1.57
100.0
1.97 ± 0.21;
1.57
Jewish, inactive
607
2.98 ±0.11
2.30
100.0
2.98 ±0.11
2.30
{Table continued on next page)
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
467
Total Outlet and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Median
Incid.
Mean
Median
Frequency
Freq.
%
Frequency
Freq.
Single Males
;: Educational Level 13+ (Continued)
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
384
2.02 =t 0.10
1.43
99.7
2.02 ± 0.10
1.43
Protestant, inactive
1000
* 2.62 ± 0.07
1.99
99.8
2.62 ± 0.07
1.99
Catholic, devout
94
' 1.85 0.16
1.32
i 100.0
1.85 ±0.16
1.32
Catholic, inactive
125
2.86 ±0.23
2.09
100.0
2.86 ± 0.23
2.09
Jewish, inactive
331
3.09 ±0.15
2.44
100.0
3.09 ± 0.15
2.44
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
100
1.85 ±0.21
! 1.25
100.0
1.85 ± 0.21
1.25
Protestant, inactive
279
2.56 ±0.15
i 1.82
99.6
2.57 ± 0.15
1.83
Jewish, inactive
104
3.23 ±0,35
2.42
100.0
3.23 ± 0.35
1 2.42
1
Married Males: Educational Level 13 +
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
91
3.29 ±0.26
2.71
100.0
3.29 ± 0.26
2.71
Protestant, inactive
280
3.85 ± 0.18
3.19
100.0
3.85 ± 0.18
3.19
Jewish, inactive
86
4.02 ±0.23
3.44
100.0
4.02 ± 0.23
3.44
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
123
2.67 ± 0.15
2.50
100.0
2.67 ± 0.15
2.50
Protestant, inactive
346
3.45 ±0.16
2.76
100.0
3.45 ± 0.16
2.76
Jewish, inactive
109
3.50 ±0.21
2.86
100.0
3.50 ±0.21
2.86
Age: 31-35
Protestant, active
109
2.31 ±0.13
2.17
100.0
2.31 ± 0.13
i 2.17
Protestant, inactive
270
3. 10 ±0.17
2.37
100.0
3.10 ± 0.17
s 2.37
Jewish, inactive
84
3.05 ±0.26
2.43
100.0
|3.05 ±0.26
2.43
Age: 36-40
Protestant, active
73
1.98 ± 0.12
1.90
100.0
1.98 ±0.12
1.90
Protestant, inactive
187
2,88 ± 0.22
2.20
: 99.5
2.89 ± 0.22
2.21
Jewish, inactive
62
2.67 ±0.26
2.13
100.0
2.67 ± 0.26
2.13
Table 125. Total sexual outlet as related to religious background
468
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
the bases for the law which has formally expressed society’s interest in
controlhng human sexual behavior.
It has already been pointed out (Chapter 6) that average frequencies of
sexual outlet for the human male are distinctly below those which are
normal among some other anthropoids and which would probably be
normal in the human animal if there were no restrictions upon his sexual
activity. Averages for the single males begin at 3.3 per week and drop with
old age, and averages for the married males begin at 4.8 per week and drop
with age ; but the averages in non-restrained human animals would proba-
bly be nearer 7 per week, and in 10 to 15 per cent of the population would
probably run higher than that (Chapter 6). It has been stated (Chapter 8)
that the differences between these higher figures and the actual rates of the
male population provide some measure of the effectiveness of the social
pressures, of the specific laws, and of the attitudes, ideals, esthetic values,
physical interferences, and other restraints which the social organization
imposes upon the sexual activity of the individual.
That these social pressures are primarily religious in their origin is
confirmed by the comparisons which can now be made between the fre-
quencies of total sexual outlet and the incidences and frequencies of outlet
from the various sexual sources, among persons who are actively con-
cerned with religious organizations, and among persons who are less
closely concerned with the teachings and practices of any church group.
In attempting to measure these present-day influences of the church on
the sexual behavior of the American population, three religious groups,
Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish, are recognized in the present chapter.
These faiths embrace most of those Americans who recognize any church
affiliation. Within each group a still more important classification has,
however, been made. This involves the degree of adherence of the individ-
ual to the doctrines and to the activities of the religious group in which
he is at least nominally placed. Of course, every degree of adherence exists
among various individuals, and as the data have been recorded in our
original histories, several such degrees have been recognized (Chapter 3).
However, the limited size of the present sample has made it necessary to
base the analyses in the present chapter on two groups of Protestants,
two groups of Catholics, and two groups of those of the Jewish faith.
These groups have included, on the one hand, the less active (or less devout)
members of each faith, and on the other hand the more active (or more
devout) members of those same faiths. Active or devout in this classifica-
tion has been taken to mean regular attendance and/or active participation
in organized church activities, and/or frequent attendance at the Catholic
confessional or the Jewish synagogue. Inactive or non-devout in the imme-
diate analysis has been apphed to all persons who have not qualified as
active or devout under the above definitions.
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
469
It is hardly necessary to add that all comparisons made in the present
chapter are based on a preliminary breakdown of each population for
sex, race, marital status, age, and educational levels. With the additional
breakdowns on the religious group and on the degree of adherence of each
subject to that religious group, all of the calculations given in the present
chapter are based on 7-way breakdowns. Any analysis short of this would
have proven inadequate ; but it is only a limited list of religious groups for
which we have samples that are adequate for such elaborate treatment
(Chapter 3). All conclusions which are drawn in the present chapter should
be limited to these particular groups. In the interest of scientific fact and
of such social and moral applications as others may wish to draw from the
scientific fact, it is to be hoped that religious groups which are not yet
sufiiciently represented may be included in the future development of this
survey.
TOTAL SEXUAL OUTLET
Considering the frequencies of total sexual outlet (Table 125), the
sexually least active individuals in any age and educational group are the
Orthodox Jews (who are the least active of all), the devout Catholics, and
the active Protestants (in that order). Conversely, the sexually most active
individuals are the non-church-going Catholics, with the inactive Protes-
tants and the inactive Jewish males intermediate in the system. At various
educational levels and in different age groups there is some variation in
this ordering, but there is only one group, namely the single males of the
college level, where the data are abundant enough to compare all six
religious classifications.
Between adolescence and 15 years of age, the boys who will ultimately
go to college are arranged in the following religious groups, beginning
with those who are sexually least active and building the list in the direc-
tion of those who are most active:
Jewish Orthodox
Catholic devout
Protestant active
Jewish inactive
Catholic inactive
Protestant inactive
This order remains constant whether the calculations are made as means or
as medians, and whether for total populations or for active populations.
The order is somewhat different when it is based on the number of persons
involved in sexual activity (the active incidence figures). In this latter case,
the smallest number of sexually active individuals (91%) is to be found
among the Orthodox Jews, while the largest number of active individuals
(98%) is to be found among the devout Catholics.
Between 16 and 20 years of age the boys who will go to college, or who
are already in college, are arranged in the following order, beginning with
470
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Masturbation and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males; Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
89
1.30±0.22
0.50
52.9
70.8
1.83
1.13
Protestant, inactive
481
1.58 =t0.10
0.89
51.1
88.1
1.79
1.08
Catholic, inactive
106
1.66 =<=0.20
0.93
52.6
85.8
1.94
1.21
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
91
0.77±0.11
0.34
28.6
81.3
0.95
^ 0.49
Protestant, inactive
493
0.94 ±0.06
0.46 ;
28.4
85.8
1.10
0.60
Catholic, inactive '
105
1.04 ±0.13
0.49
30.9
84.8
1.22
0.72
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
234
1
0.60 ± 0.07 i
0.18
18.7
62.4
0.96
0.50
Catholic, inactive
60
0.61 ±0.15
1
0.20
18.9
66.7
0.91
0.42
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age:Adol.-15
Protestant, active
93
1.75 ±0.19
1.32
68.2
87.1
2.01
1.60
Protestant, inactive
375
1.88 ±0.11
1.13
55.8
90.4
2.08
1.35
Catholic, inactive
103
2.22 ±0.23
1.46
58.8
95.1
2.33
1.57
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
95
1.15±0.14
0.58
45.9
88.4
1.30
0.72
Protestant, inactive
315
1,20 ±0.09
0.66
34.4
88.9
1.35
0.83
Catholic, inactive
101
1.56±0.18
0.89
36.1
91.1
1.71
1.03
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: Adol.-15
1
Protestant, active
547
1.88
d=
0.08
1.42
75.6
80.8
2.33
1.88
Protestant, inactive
1471
2.40
dz
0.06
1.82
78.8
84.7
2.83
2.30
Catholic, devout
132
1.96
d=
0.25
0.96
81.9
78.8
2.49
1.61
Catholic, inactive
165
2.33
=b
0.21
1.65
78.4
80.6
2.89
1.98
Jewish, Orthodox
58
1.56
=fc
0.26 j
1.03
79.3
72.4
2.15
1.47
Jewish, inactive i
601
2.34
=b
0 . 12 !
1
1.58
80.6
80.0
2.93
2.16
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
557
1.50
=b
0.07
1.00
65.0
85.6
1.75
1.33
Protestant, inactive
1513
1.95
dz
0.05
1.41
67.8
91.5
2.13
1.62
Catholic, devout
136
1.53
rfc:
0.19
0.75
63.3
87.8
1.82
0.95
Catholic, inactive
168
1.65
=b
0.15
1.06
58.7
86.3 !
1.91
1.50
Jewish, Orthodox
59
1.18
=t=
0.19
0.64
59.4
78.0
1.52
0.93
Jewish, inactive
607
2.09
d=
0.11
1.41
70.2
88.1
2.38
1.68
{Table continued on next page)
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
471
Masturbation and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
CASES
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Median
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
Mean
Median
Frequency
Freq.
°/
/o
Freq. ;
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 13+ (Continued)
Age; 21-25
Protestant, active
384
1.10 0.07
0.60
54.5
83.6
1.32
0.81
Protestant, inactive
1000
1.46 ±0.06
0.80
55.6
90.3
1.61
0.93
Catholic, devout
94
0 82 ±0.12
0.36
45.1
78.7
1.04
0.52
Catholic, inactive
125
1.10 ±0.15
0.50
39.4
81.6
1.35
0.75
Jewish, inactive
331
1.58 ±0.12
0.73
51.4
86.4
1.83
1.03
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
100
1.00 ±0.14
0.49
54.3
82.0
1.22
0.72
Protestant, inactive
279
1.32±0.10
0.63
51.8
88.2
1.50
0.81
Jewish, inactive
104
1.02 ±0.21
0.38
31.2
79.8
1.27
0.57
Married Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
91
0.22 ±0.04
0.04
6.9
60.4
0.37
0,21
Protestant, inactive
280
0.34 ±0.04
0.08
8.9
69.6
0.49
0.24
Jewish, inactive
86
0.45 ±0.10
0.07
11.4
64.0
0.71
0.28
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
123
0.27 ±0.06
0.05
10.1
64.2
0.41
0.10
Protestant, inactive
346
0.33 ±0.03
0.08
9.6
71.1
0.46
0.24
Jewish, inactive
109
0.25 ±0.05
0.04
7.0
57.8
0.43
0.21
Age: 31-35
1
Protestant, active
109
0.22 ±0.06
0.03
9.7
59.6
0.37
0.09
Protestant, inactive
270
0,29 ±0,04
0.08
9.5
71.1
0.41
0.21
Jewish, inactive
84
0.20 ±0.05
0.01
6.5
52.4
0.37
0.14
Age: 36-40
Protestant, active
73
0.22 ±0.07
0.02
11,2
54.8
0.41
0.09
Protestant, inactive
187
0,27 ±0.04
0.07
9.6
71.1
0.38
0.17
Jewish, inactive
62
0.14 ±0.05
0.00
5.1
41.9
0.34
0.10
Table 126. Masturbation as related to religious background
472
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
the sexually least active group and building the list in the direction of the
most active group :
Jewish Orthodox Catholic inactive
Catholic devout Protestant inactive
Protestant active Jewish inactive
This order varies somewhat with the calculations as means or as medians,
and for total populations and for active populations.
Between 21 and 25 years of age, the single males who have gone to
college are arranged in the following order, beginning with the sexually
least active group and ending with the most active group :
Catholic devout Catholic inactive
Protestant active Jewish inactive
Protestant inactive
This order is more or less constant, whatever the method of calculating.
For the less adequate series of religious groups among males of other
educational levels the story appears to be much the same. In both grade
school and high school groups, the persons most actively connected with
church activities are, again, the least active sexually, and the males who are
sexually most active are those Catholics who have least to do with their
church.
The differences between the frequencies of these several religious groups
are, in most instances, not large but rather constant. There is a 25 per cent
difference between groups at certain ages in certain educational levels, and
in some instances the most extreme groups have rates of total outlet which
are 75 per cent higher than the rates of the least active groups of the same
age and educational levels. To put it another way, devout acceptance of
the church’s teaching is correlated with sexual frequencies which are two-
thirds or less than two-thirds of the frequencies which are found among
males of corresponding age and educational levels who are not actively
connected with the church. Either this is the direct effect of church teach-
ings, or else those individuals who become most actively associated with
the church are a select group which would not have had high frequencies
of sexual outlet if they had never belonged to a church. It will take more
elaborate analyses of a much larger series of histories to determine which
explanation is correct, but there is some evidence now at hand (Chapter 6)
that some portion of the devoutly rehgious individuals have repressed
rather than sublimated sex histories.
MASTURBATION
At various places in the foregoing chapters it has been pointed out that
masturbation and intercourse are the chief sources of pre-marital outlet.
It is, therefore, to be expected that there should be certain correlations
between the frequencies of masturbation and the frequencies of inter
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
473
course, and thus indirectly of total sexual outlet. In upper and lower social
levels (Chapter 10) the frequencies of masturbation do bear an inverse
relation to the frequencies of pre-marital intercourse, and it might be
anticipated that the suppression of one of these activities by the rules of
any religious group would provide some direct impetus to the development
of the other activity.
This, however, proves not to be so. The least frequent experience in
masturbation is found among the more devout members of each and every
one of the religious groups (Table 126), and these are the very groups which
have the lowest rates of total outlet. The incidence figures for masturbation
are not constantly different, but the mean frequencies are always lower for
the more devout groups. This is true for both single and married males of
every age group on which there are sufficient data and, strikingly enough,
it is true of every educational level in each religious group. In some age and
educational groups the masturbatory rates of the active Protestants, the
devout Catholics, and the Orthodox Jews do not average more than two-
thirds or three-fourths as high as the rates of the inactive members of those
same churches. Even in those segments of the population where the differ-
ences between devout and inactive groups are more minor, it is significant
that they always stand in the same order: the religiously active persons
masturbate less frequently than the persons who are less concerned with
their religion. At the other end of the picture, the males who most often
masturbate are the religiously inactive Protestants, sometimes the non-
church-going members of the Catholic faith, and in some cases the inactive
Jewish males.
The objections to masturbation have originated from reUgious creeds
which go back to the most remote beginnings of our Western European-
American civilization. Elsewhere in the world masturbation may be looked
upon as a childish performance, or as evidence of the incapacity of an
individual to make socio-sexual adjustments (Chapter 14); but few other
peoples have condemned masturbation as severely as the Jews have. The
Talmudic references and discussions make masturbation a greater sin than
non-marital intercourse. There were excuses for pre-marital intercourse
and for extra-marital intercourse with certain persons under the Jewish
code, but no extenuation for masturbation (Bible, Talmud passim). The
logic of this proscription depended, of course, upon the reproductive
motive in the sexual philosophy of the Jews. This made any act which
offered no possibility of a resulting conception unnatural, a perversion,
and a sin. Whatever other sources may have contributed to the Christian
church’s objections to masturbation, certainly the Jewish traditions must
have provided a considerable impetus to the perpetuation of this taboo in
the Christian religion. In the Orthodox church today, the Jewish boy is
definitely affected by the old-time Hebraic laws on this point, and the often
474
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Indd.
%
1
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adoi.-15 1
Protestant, active i
89
0.022=1=0.007
0.00
0.9
21.3
0.10
0.067
Protestant, inactive
481
0.057=1=0.010
0.00 ,
1.8
26.0 ,
0.22
0.078
Catholic, inactive .
106
0.035=1=0.010
0.00 :
1.1
23.6
0.15
0.076
Age : 16-20
Protestant, active
91
0.14 =b0.04
0.01
5.0
52.7 :
0.26
0.077
Protestant, inactive
493
0.14 =i=0.02
0.02
4.4
56.6
0.26
0.087
Catholic, inactive
105
0.17 ±0.03 <
0.03
5.0
57.1
0.30
0.16
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
234
0.15 ±0.02
0.03
4.6
59.0
0.25
0.087
Catholic, inactive
60
0.21 ±0.04
0.07
6.6
65.0
0.33
0.23
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
93
0.16 ±0.05
0,00
6.3
40,9
0.39
0.15
Protestant, inactive
375
0.14 ±0.03
0.00
4.1
40.0
0-35 .
0.10
Catholic, inactive
103
0.13 ±0.04
0.00
3.4
35.0
0.36
0.15
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
95
0.18 ±0,03
0.06
7.3
71.6
0.26
0.10
Protestant, inactive
315
0.22 ±0.02
0.06
6.4
72.7
0.31
0.10
Catholic, inactive
101
0.18 ±0.03
0.04
4,1
60.4
0.29
0.17
Single Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
547
0.34
±0.03
0.12
13.6
70.7
0.48
0.29
Protestant, inactive
1471
0.33
±0.02
0.02
10.8
68.0
0.48
0.27
Catholic, devout
132
0.30
±0.04
0.15
12.4
75.0
0.40
0.27
CathoHc, inactive
165
0.32
±0.04
0.10
10.8
65.5
0.49
0.31
Jewish, Orthodox
58
0.25
±0.06
0.09
12.5
77.6
0.32
0.18
Jewish, inactive
601
0.41
±0.03
0.15
14.1
75.4
0.54
0.29
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
557
0.41
±0.02
0.27
17.9 ^
92.5
0.45
0.30
Protestant, inactive
1513
0.42
±0.02
0.24
14.5
91.7 i
0.45
0.28
Catholic, devout
136
0.48
±0.06
0.30
19.9
94.1
0.51
0.32
Catholic, inactive
168
0.43
±0.04
0.26
15.3
91.1
0.47 ,
0.30
Jewish, Orthodox
59
0.37
±0.06
0.23
18.6
89.8
0.41
0.28
Jewish, inactive
607
0.44
±0.03
0.24
14.9
86.2
0.51
0.31
(Table continued on next page)
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
475
Nocturnal Emissions and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTP/E POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 13+ {Continued)
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
384
0.42
=fc0.03
0.26
20.8
90.1
0.47
0.30
Protestant, inactive
1000
0.36
=4=0.02
0.20
13.8
86.9
0.42
0.26
Catholic, devout
94
0.48
=t0.07
0.31
26.6
90.4
0.53
, 0.34
Catholic, inactive
125
0.40
=4=0.05
0.24
14.3
88.0
0.45
, 0.29
Jewish, inactive
331
0.40
=fc:0.04
0.19
13.1
81.0
0.50
0.29
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
100
0.41
=4=0.05
0.27
21.9
95.0
0.43
0.29
Protestant, inactive
279
0.29
=4=0.02
0.17
11.2
85.3
0.34
0.24
Jewish, inactive
104
0.31
=4=0.06
0.12
9.6
75.0
! 0.42
0.24
Mamed Males: Educational Level 13 +
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
91
0.17 =4=0.03
0.053
5.2
67.0
0.25
0,12
Protestant, inactive
280
0.19 =4=0.03
0.051
5.0
67.9
0.28
0.10
Jewish, inactive
86
0.13 =4=0.03
0.033
3.3
60.5
0.22
0.09
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
123
0.16 =4:0.02
0.067
6.1
78,9
0.20
0.09
Protestant, inactive
346
0.16 =t0.02
0.056
4.7
71.7
0.22
0.09
Jewish, inactive
109
0.17 =±=0.03
0.043
4.7
66.1
0.25
0.09
Age: 31-35
Protestant, active
109
0.17 =4=0.02
0.073
7.6
78.9
0.22
0.10
Protestant, inactive
270
0.14 =t0.02
0.050
4.6
72.2
0.19
0.08
Jewish, inactive
84
0.12 =4=0.04
0.017
4.0
56.0
0.21
0.08
Age: 36-40
Protestant, active
73
0.16 =fc:0.02
0.079
7.9
75.3
’ 0.21
0.16
Protestant, inactive
187
0.12 =4=0.02
0.042
4.4
66.8
i 0.19
1 0.08
Jewish, inactive
62
0.11 =fc0.03
0.028
3.9
61.3
0.18
0.07
Table 127. Nocturnal emissions as related to religious background
476
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
lower rates of the religiously inactive Jewish boys indicate that even they
are not entirely free of the ancestral codes;
The Catholic boy is told that masturbation is a carnal sin, particularly
because it is so often accompanied by erotic fantasies which represent an
improper use of functions which should be reserved for contacts which
might lead to reproduction (Davis 1946). Some priests go to considerable
lengths to impress a confessant with the idea that masturbation is one of
the more serious sins, and earlier church writers sometimes specifically
declared it more sinful than fornication (Northcote 1916).
Through most of its past history the Protestant church has been as
severe in its condemnation of “self-abuse” as either the Jewish or the
Catholic groups, and some Protestant clergymen maintain such attitudes
today. However, many Protestant clergymen now accept medical, psy-
chologic, and biologic opinion that masturbation does no physical harm.
Perhaps as a result of this, we find the religiously active Protestants of the
better educated groups more often involved in masturbation than the
devout Catholics or Orthodox Jews. Some Protestant groups now lay less
emphasis upon the physical harm supposed to result from masturbation,
and attach more importance to the undesirability of allowing oneself to
become subject to such a habit. Whatever the issues, however, the record
is clear that religious influences do succeed in reducing both the incidence
and the frequency of masturbation among the more devout members of
each church group.
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
Nocturnal emissions represent the one type of sexual outlet to which
there is a minimum of religious objection. One might, therefore, have
anticipated that there would be higher frequencies of nocturnal emissions
among males who are more closely allied to the church; but this is not
consistently so. What differences there are between the frequencies and the
incidences of emissions among religiously more active and religiously less
active groups, are quite minor (Table 127). The means differ from the
medians calculated for the same groups, nearly as often as the averages for
devout groups differ from the averages for inactive groups.
This result is significant. Persons who are interested in moral interpreta-
tions in sex education insist that the frequencies of nocturnal emissions
rise to suflicient heights to provide all of the necessary, sexual outlet for a
boy who abstains from other sexual activities. But although the record
indicates that those who have been most interested in the church have
actually reduced their total outlets, the frequencies of nocturnal emissions
in these groups have not been raised (Chapter 15). The relative importance
of the emissions is raised by the reduction of the rates of total outlet, but
the absolute frequencies of the emissions are not altered.
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
477
PRE MARITAL PETTING TO CLIMAX
There are some slight differences in the incidences and frequencies of
pre-marital petting in the several religious groups (Table 128) but, as we
have already seen, there are much greater differences between the several
social levels (Tables 84, 110, Figure 100). The deliberate elaboration of
pre-marital petting first emerged as an activity of a particular educational
level (the college group), and religious backgrounds seem to have had
little to do with the individual’s acceptance or rejection of such activity.
Many individuals in lower level groups, whatever their religious connec-
tions, consider that petting is a perversion because it is a substitute for
actual coitus. At the college level, however, petting is much more often
accepted, with little distinction on account of the religious background of
the group. There may be some tendency for the more devout Catholics of
the college level to avoid petting during the younger adolescent years, but
there is no consistent trend in the arrangement of rehgious groups at any
older age level.
In all religious groups, older persons have been disturbed over this
petting behavior. In Catholic philosophy, the general principles concerning
venial and carnal sins certainly apply to many of the techniques that are
utilized in petting (Davis 1946). It is surprising, therefore, that there has
not been more specific religious objection to petting, and that young
people of all faiths have so uniformly ignored what objections they have
heard. That petting is not still more abundant must, however, depend upon
the more general inhibitions on sex which religious teachings have built
into the very body of our culture.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
As already pointed out (Chapter 10), there are material differences
between the attitudes on pre-marital intercourse in lower social levels and
the attitudes in better educated segments of the population. There may be
7 times (700 per cent) as much pre-marital intercourse among lower social
levels as there is in the group that goes to college (Tables 85-87, Figures
101-103). But within any particular social level, the differences between
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, and the differences between the most
active and least devout members of each of these religious groups, are very
much less (Table 129). Rarely do they amount to more than 50 or 100
per cent. Lower level, religiously active Protestants average only two-thirds
as much pre-marital intercourse as religiously inactive Protestants of the
same level; but the same lower level Protestants average 6 or 8 times as
much pre-marital intercourse as the religiously inactive Protestants of the
college level. It is true that within each and every educational level it is the
religiously devout group which has the least pre-marital intercourse; and
the differences in incidence and frequency figures are enough to appear
Petting to Climax, and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
CASES
total population
active population
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
89
0.022 ±0.013
0.00
0.9
11.2
0.20
0.069
Protestant, inactive
422
0.027 ±0.010
0.00
0.9
13.5
0.20
0.060
Catholic, inactive
106
0.025 ±0.011
0.00
0.8
16.0
0.15
0.064
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
91
0.026 ±0.013
0.00
1.0
18.7
0.14
0.060
Protestant, inactive
431
0.043 ±0.012
0.00
1.3
21.6
0.20
0.063
Catholic, inactive
105
0.052 ±0.020
0.00
1.5
22.9
0.23
0.074
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
234
0.040 ±0.018
0.00
1.2
15.4
0.26
0.066
Catholic, inactive
60
0.053 ±0.031
0.00
1.7
23.3
0.23
0.075
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active ,
93
0.013 ±0.005
0.00
0.5
16.1
0.08
0.062
Protestant, inactive
311
0.038 ±0.009
0.00
1.1
20.6
0.19
0.069
Catholic, inactive
103
0.010 ±0.041
0.00
2.7
21.4
0.47
0.088
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
95
0.058 ±0.018
0.00
2.3
i
31.6
0.18
0.070
Protestant, inactive
315
0.072 ±0.014
0.00
2.1
33.3
0.22
0.071
Catholic, inactive
101
0.13 ±0.040
0.00
3.0
35.6
0.36
0.080
Single Males: Educational Level 134-
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
484
0.06
d=
0.14
0.00
2.3
13.6
0.43
0.086
Protestant, inactive
1178
0.05
db
0.007
0.00
1.7
17.0
0.29
0.082
Catholic, devout
132
0.02
=b
0.008
0.00
0.8
8.3
0.23
0.180
Catholic, inactive
165
0,03
=i=
0.009
0.00
1.1
13.3
0.24
0.130
Jewish, Orthodox
58
0.07
db
0.034
0.00
3.6
20.7
0.34
0.081
Jewish, inactive
377
0.02
=±=
0.007
0.00
0.9
10.3
0.24
0.091
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
492
0.14
0.020
0.00
6.1
39.6
0.35
0.082
Protestant, inactive
1210
0.14
d=
0.011
0.00
5.2
46.9
0.31
0.084
Catholic, devout
136
0.15
=b
0.032
0.00
6.2
43.4
0.35
0.097
Catholic, inactive
168
0.11
db
0.019
0.001
4.0
50.0
0.23
0.087
Jewish, Orthodox
59
0.14
=b
0.046
0.00
6.9
45.8
0.30
0.088
Jewish, inactive
379
0.13
d=
0.019
0.00
5.0
47.8
0.28
0.093
Age: 21-25
1
Protestant, active
339
0.20
0.036
0.000
10.0
48.1
0.42
0.090
Protestant, inactive
841
0.18
=b
0.018
0.004
7.6
50.9
0.36
0.093
Catholic, devout
94
0.15
=fc
0.032
0.013
8.2
53.2
0.28
0.098
Catholic, inactive
125
0.16
d=
0.039
0.008
5.9
52.0
0.32
0.087
Jewish, inactive
331
0.23
d=
0.023
0.060
7.5
68.6
0.34
0.150
Table 128 . Heterosexual petting to climax as related to religious background
478
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OLFTLET 479
significant if they were not dwarfed by the differences which are effected
by the mores of the social groups which are involved.
Heterosexual coitus is, in many ways, the most important aspect of
human sexual behavior. Its occurrence in non-marital histories has been
condemned by every religious group, practically without exception, in our
Western European- American culture. But this is one more type of sexual
activity where religious restraints have had less direct effect than the mores
of the several groups which constitute our society.
On the other hand, the origins of these sexual mores must be credited to
the long-time effects which religious teachings have had through the many
hundreds of years in which our cultural patterns have been developing.
Religiously active members of the upper social level know that they are
rejecting pre-marital intercourse on purely moral grounds (Chapter 10).
Religiously inactive persons at this same level reject pre-marital intercourse
almost as often, but they insist that they do so as a matter of plain decency.
There is, however, little difference in meaning between these two verbal-
izations of what are basically the same religious philosophies.
Among males of the lower social levels, those who are least active in the
church rather freely accept pre-marital intercourse without conflicts of
conscience. The religiously more devout individuals at the same level may
accept coitus almost as often, although they “know that it is a sin,” and
they may occasionally be disturbed by their recognition of its moral
significance. Nevertheless, both church-going and non-church-going males
of the lower social levels continue to have pre-marital coitus with frequen-
cies that average far above those of any upper level group, because all
lower level groups, whatever the degree of their religious affiliation, beheve
that it is human nature to have intercourse, and an inevitable activity for
man as he is made.
The church may even have more influence on the masturbatory behavior
of a male than it does upon his pre-marital coital behavior. The acceptance
or rejection of masturbation is not so difficult an issue to so many persons;
but the very fact that coitus is a more significant activity socially makes its
acceptance or rejection a matter of greater importance in the mores of a
group. It would appear that in order to go further in changing overt
behavior in regard to pre-marital intercourse, the church will have to
affect the thinking of whole social levels; and that is a long-time process.
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
The available data are inadequate for analyzing the frequencies of
marital intercourse in more than a few of the religious groups which have
contributed to this study. It is interesting to note, however, that in these
particular groups marital intercourse is consistently affected by the degree
Total Non-marital Intercourse and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
CASES
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
7oOf
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0 -8
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
83
0 68
=fc
0.21
0.00
28.7
33.7
2.01
0.79
Protestant, inactive
431
1 18
=b
0.13
0.07
40.1
52.4
2.24
1.25
Catholic, inactive
89
1.22
=fc
0.25
0.00
40.1
44.9
2.72
2.06
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
81
1.24
=b
0.30
0.24
48.6
70.4
1.76
0.56
Protestant, inactive
442
1.88
=1=
0.14
0.90
60.0
90.5
2.08
1.12
Catholic, inactive
88
1.81
d=
0.28
0.53
57.0
80.7
2.25
1.25
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
200
2.23
=fc
0.25
0.94
69.5
92.0
2.42
1.18
Catholic, inactive
53
1.97
=b
0.38
0.93
61.3
84.9
2.32
1.38
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
86
0.45
dz
0.13
0.00
18.6
31.4
L
.42
0.75
Protestant, inactive
318
0.98
=fc
0.13
0.00
29.3
47.8
2.
.04
0.97
Catholic, inactive
72
0.59
d=
0.34
0.00
16.8
37.5
1
.58
0.45
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
89
0.88
=b
0.16
0.21
34.8
67.4
1,
.31
0.67
Protestant, inactive
322
1.60
dz
0.15
0.55 i
46.9
80.4
1,
.99
0.94
Catholic, inactive
69
1.34
dz
0.40
0.50
31.3
68.1
1,
.97
1,00
Single Males: Educational Level IS-f
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
493
0.06 0.02
0.00
2.5
7.1
0.84
0.32
Protestant, inactive
1205
0.09 ±0.02
0.00
3.1
11.5
0.77
0.29
Catholic, devout
103
0.04 ±0.02
0.00
1.8
4.8
0.85
1.00
Catholic, inactive
117
0.24 ±0.09
0.00
6.3
16.2
1.48
0.50
Jewish, inactive
412
0.03 ±0.02
0.00
1
1.2
7.0
0.49
0.13
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
502
0.15 ±0.03
0.00
6.8
27.3
0.56
0.09
Protestant, inactive
1235
0.27 ±0.03
0.00
10.4
45.0
0.61
0.20
Catholic, devout
107
0.18 ±0.06
0.00
6.0
39.3
0.46
0.12
Catholic, inactive
120
0 54 ±0.13
0.04
19.5
59.2
0.91
0.27
Jewish, Orthodox
54
0.24 ±0.08
0.00
13.4
38.9
0.62
0.30
Jewish, inactive
416
0.21 ±0.03
0.00
7.2
45.9
0.46
0.10
480
{Table continued on next page)
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
481
Total Non-marital Intercourse and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
TOTAL POPULATION
ACTIVE POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 13-1- {Continued)
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
348
0.20 ±0.04
0.00
10.4
32.5
0.63
0.16
Protestant, inactive
867
0.41 ±0.04
0.04
17.8
59.1
0.70
0.28
Catholic, devout
71
0.27 ±0.09
0.00
11.0
38.0
0.71
0.30
Catholic, inactive
180
0.98 ±0.20
0.25
31.7
75.0
1.31
0.45
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
88
0.19 ±0.05
0.00
9.2
35.2
0.54
0.30
Protestant, inactive
187
0.39 ±0.06
0.05
16.2
59.9
0.65
0.34
Jewish, inactive
77
1.69 ±0.32
0.65
50.9
84.4
2.00
0.95
Married Males: Educational Level 13+
Age: 21-25
i
Protestant, active
91
0.04
=fc
0.03
0.00 1
1.2
7.7
0.51
0.10
Protestant, inactive
280
0.09
0.03
0.00
2.2
17.9
0.48
0.18
Jewish, inactive
86
0.04
=fc
0.02
0.00
0.9
16.3
0.23
0.08
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
123
0.04
d=
0.02
0.00
1.3
8.1
0.43
0.08
Protestant, inactive
346
0.11
db
0.03
0.00
3.1
26.3
0.40
0.10
Jewish, inactive
109
0.15
d=
0.05
0.00
4.3
27.5
0.55
0.23
Age: 31-35
Protestant, active
109
0.03
=1=
0.03
0.00
1.4
12.8
0.25
0.06
Protestant, inactive
270
0.20
d=
0.04
0.00
6.4
34.8
0.56
0.27
Jewish, inactive
84
0.18
=b
0.07
0.00
5.8
40.5
0.43
0.09
Age: 36-40
1
Protestant, active
73
0.02
d=
0.01
0.00
1.1
16.4
0.13
0.08
Protestant, inactive
187
0.34
=fc
0.12
0.00
12.1
40.6
0.84
0.27
Jewish, inactive
62
0.23
dr
0.08
0.00
8.2
41.9
0.54
0.13
Table 129. Total pre-marital and extra-marital intercourse as related to religious
background
482
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
of church affiliation. In practically every instance the religiously active
groups engage in marital intercourse less frequently than the religiously
inactive groups (Table 130). There are frequencies in the inactive groups
which are between 20 and 30 per cent higher than the frequencies in the
religiously active groups of the same age and educational level. What effect
Marital Intercourse and Religion
RELIGIOUS GROUP
CASES
TOTAL population
ACTIVE population
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Educational Level 13+
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
91
2.80 ±0.25
2.19
86.6
98.9
2.83
2.22
Protestant, inactive
280
3.19 ±0.17
2.51
83.3
99.6
3.20
2.52
Jewish, inactive
86
3.34 ±0.22
2.88
84.3
100.0
3.34
2.88
Age: 26-30
Protestant, active
123
2.15 ±0.14
1.85
82.1
99.2
2.17
1.86
Protestant, inactive
346
2.80 ±0.14
2.13
82.1
99.7
2.81
2.14
Jewish, inactive
109
2.92 ±0.20
2.47
83.2
99.1
2.95
2.49
Age: 31-35
Protestant, active
109
1.84±0.11
1.75
80.8
98.2
1.87
1.78
Protestant, inactive
270
2.43 ±0.14
1.86
78.7
100.0
2.43
1.86
Jewish, inactive
84
2.54 ±0.24
2.12
83.8
100.0
2.54
2.12
Age: 36^0
Protestant, active
73
1.58±0.11
1.56
79.8
98.6
1.61
1.57
Protestant, inactive
187
2,07 ±0.16
1.59
73.1
98.4
2.11
1.61
Jewish, inactive
62
2.28 ±0.22
1.90
82.8
100.0
2.28
1.90
Table 130. Marital intercourse as related to religious background
this may have upon the quality of marital adjustments among reUgiously
active persons is a matter that will merit further investigation.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLETS
There is much more homosexual activity among males of lower educa-
tional levels than there is among males of the college level (Table 90,
Figure 105). Within any particular educational level the differences between
rehgious groups are not so great (Table 131). Between grade school and
college males of the same religious group there may be a 200 to 500 per
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
483
cent difference. Between religiously active and religiously inactive groups
of the same denomination in the same educational level, the differences are
ordinarily not more than 50 to 150 per cent, and sometimes they are not
even 10 per cent. Such differences as do occur lie in the direction of less
homosexual activity among devout groups, whether they be Protestant,
Catholic, or Jewish, and more homosexual activity among religiously less
active groups.
The Hebrews, in contrast to some of their neighbors, attached a severe
reUgious condemnation to homosexual activity (May 1931, Westermarck
1936, Genesis 19, Leviticus 18: 7, 22, Leviticus 20: 13, Judges 19, 1 Kings
22:46, II Kings 23 : 7, Romans 1 : 27, 1 Corinthians 6: 9, 1 Timothy 1 : 9-10,
Talmud passim). There has, in consequence, been a continuous history of
condemnation of the homosexual in the Christian church from its very
beginning. Nevertheless, there has not been so frequent or so free dis-
cussion of the sinfulness of the homosexual in reUgious literature as there
has been of the sinfulness of masturbation and of pre-marital intercourse.
Consequently, it is not unusual to find even devoutly religious persons
who become involved in the homosexual without any clear understanding
of the church’s attitude on the subject.
In general, however, the highest incidences of the homosexual are among
the non-devout groups, and the lowest incidences are to be found among
the more devout groups. In upper educational levels, among religiously
inactive groups, something between 10 and 50 per cent more individuals
may be involved than in the active groups ; and in lower educational levels
the dijSerences in incidences are even greater. The differences in frequen-
cies between the devout and non-devout groups are ordinarily much less,
except that the homosexual among Orthodox Jewish groups appears to be
phenomenally low.
RELIGIOUS BASES OF THE MORES
There are only minor differences in the emphases which the several
religious groups have placed upon sexual morality. The strictly Orthodox
Jewish code and the strict Catholic interpretations differ somewhat, but
both of them accept the reproductive philosophy of sex, and both of them
consider sexual activities which do not offer the possibility of fruition in
reproduction as morally wrong. Consequently both of them vigorously
condemn masturbation, and both of them attach a tremendous importance
to the value of virginity at the time of marriage. The Jewish church main-
tains its stand on the basis of Biblical and Talmudic interpretations. The
Catholic church more often bases its interpretations on a natural philoso-
phy which may be re-interpreted from time to time but which has always
emphasized the abnormahty or the perverseness of sexual behavior which
occurs outside of marriage.
484
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Homosexual Outlet and Religion
religious group
cases
TOTAL POPULATION
active POPULATION
Mean
Frequency
Median
Freq.
%of
Total
Outlet
Incid.
%
Mean
Freq.
Median
Freq.
Single Males: Educational Level 0-8
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
89
0.38 =«=0.09
0.00
15.3
22.5
1.68
1.69
Protestant, inactive
481
0.21 ±0.03
0 00
6.9
22.5
0.95
0.36
Catholic, inactive
106
0.31 ±0.11
0.00
9.9
30.2
1.03
0.35
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
91
0.33 ±0.12
0.00
12.2
23.1
1.43
0.81
Protestant, inactive
493
0.20 ±0.03
0.00
6.1
24.5
0.83
0.30
Catholic, inactive
105
0.34 ±0.08
0.00
10.2
35.2
0.97
0.37
Age: 21-25
Protestant, inactive
234
0.21 ±0.05
0.00
6.4
18.8
1.10
0.46
Catholic, inactive
60
0.36 ±0.13
0.00
11.1
40.0
0.89
0.30
Single Males: Educational Level 9-12
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
93
0.11 ±0.05
0.00
4.3
15.1
0.73
0.09
Protestant, inactive
375
0.28 ±0.04
0.00
8.1
34.1
0.81
0.29
Catholic, inactive
103
0.52 ±0.15
0.00
13.7
46.6
1.11
0.41
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
95
0.20 ±0.06
0.00
8.0
30.5
0.65
0.10
Protestant, inactive
315
0.30 ±0.05
0.00
8.7
37.1
0.81
0.21
Catholic, inactive
101
0.85 ±0.19
0.06
19.7
59.4
1.43
0.63
Single Males: Educational Level 13 +
Age: Adol.-15
Protestant, active
547
0.09 ±0.019
0 00
3.7
23.8
0.38
0.09
Protestant, inactive
1471
0.10 ±0.011
0.00
3.4
25.6
0.41
0.09
Catholic, devout
132
0.08 ±0.041
0.00
3.4
16.7
0.48
0.08
Catholic, inactive
165
0.13 ±0.040
0.00
4.3
20.0
0.64
0.21
Jewish, inactive
601
0.07 ±0.015
0.00
2.2
14.6
0.44
0.10
Age: 16-20
Protestant, active
557
0.07 ±0.017
0.00
2.8
17.4
0.37
0.09
Protestant, inactive
1513
0.07 ±0.010
0.00
2.4
18.0
0.39
0 08
Catholic, devout
136
0.04 ±0.015
0.00
1.6
14.6
0.26
0.10
Catholic, inactive
168
0.13 ±0.037
0.00
4.8
19.6
0.69
0.28
Jewish, Orthodox
59
0.02 ±0.014
0.00
1.1
11.9
0.19
0.08
Jewish, inactive
607
0.06 ±0.015
0.00
2.0
10.7
0.55
0.09
Age: 21-25
Protestant, active
384
0.04 ±0.015
0.00
2.0
6.2
0.63
0.23
Protestant, inactive
1000
0.09 ±0.016
0.00
3.5
11.5
0.79
0.24
Catholic, devout
94
0.08 ±0.037
0.00
4.3
10.6
0.73
G.30
Catholic, inactive
125
0.26 ±0.081
0.00
9.2
15.2
1.68
1.50
Jewish, inactive
331
0.07 ±0.025
0.00
2.3
7.9
0.89
0.13
Table 131. Homosexual outlet as related to religious background
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
485
These restraints on sexual activities are well recognized among devout
Catholics, and often have major effects on the personalities of these
individuals. Devout Catholics are restrained in regard to the frequencies
of their total outlet, and in regard to their acceptance of any variety of
sexual outlets. Non-devout Catholics are much more active sexually. As
the church might well contend, the Catholics who are most active sexually
are those who are not good Catholics. There will be persons who will
suggest that the higher rates of sexual activity among non-devout Catholics
depend upon the fact that many poorly educated and immigrant groups
belong to that church; but it should be pointed out again that all com-
parisons between religious groups have been made for populations that
are homogeneous in regard to five other biologic and social items, and
that Catholic groups of particular educational levels have been compared
only with other groups of exactly the same levels. We have no sufficient
data for explaining these high rates of sexual activity among the non-devout
Catholic groups.
The intermediate positions of the Protestant groups are again in line
with our understanding of the intermediate effectiveness of the control
which the Protestant church attempts to exercise on sexual behavior. There
are, of course, considerable differences between Protestant sects on this
matter and often greater differences in the interpretations of sexual morali-
ties among clergymen of the same sect. In general, the more literal groups
of the Protestant church make sexual appraisals which are close to those
of the Talmud and of the Catholic natural law; but a more liberal portion
of the Protestant clergy is inclined to re-interpret all types of sexual be-
havior in terms of the total social adjustment of the individual.
Even though the differences between the sexual philosophies of these
three religious groups are not great, one might have expected greater
differences than those which actually exist between the histories of the
adherents of the three groups. With one exception, there are surprisingly
few differences between the behavior of equally devout or non-devout
members of the three religious faiths. The one exception lies among the
Orthodox Jewish males. Of all religious groups they are the sexually least
active, both in regard to the frequencies of their total sexual outlet, and in
regard to the incidences and frequencies of masturbation, nocturnal
emissions, and the homosexual. They are closer to the males of other
groups in regard to pre-marital petting and pre-marital intercourse.
This relative inactivity of the Orthodox Jewish males is especially
interesting, in view of the diametrically opposite opinion which recently
stirred a considerable portion of Europe against the Jews as a race. It is
further significant to note here that while the non-Orthodox are much
more active than the Orthodox Jewish males, the sexually most active
groups are religiously non-active Protestants or Catholics as often as they
are Jewish.
486
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
These data on the lower frequencies of sexual activity among the Ortho-
dox Jews will occasion no surprise to those who understand the pervading
asceticism of Hebrew philosophy. Non-devout Jewish groups, even includ-
ing those who observe none of the Orthodox customs and who may be
removed by several generations from ancestors who ever attended the
synagogue, may still be controlled to a considerable degree by the Talmudic
interpretations of sexual morality. There is a general opinion that Jewish
groups discuss sexual matters publicly with less restraint than most other
groups, and this opinion may provide some basis for the general im-
pression that Jews are sexually more active. It has been notable,
however, in a high proportion of our Jewish histories, that the freedom
with which they record the details of their own sexual activities and the
freedom with which they discuss those details, not only with us but with
many of their fellows and with utter strangers, has surprisingly little
relation to the extent of the overt activity in their individual sexual his-
tories. The influence of the several thousand years of Jewish sexual philos-
ophy is not to be ignored in the search for any final explanation of these
data.
The differences between religiously devout persons and religiously in-
active persons of the same faith are much greater than the differences
between two equally devout groups of different faiths. In regard to total
sexual outlet the religiously inactive groups may have frequencies that are
25 to 75 per cent higher than the frequencies of the religiously devout
groups. Among religiously inactive males there are definitely higher
frequencies of masturbation, pre-marital intercourse, marital intercourse,
and the homosexual.
The church, however, exerts a wider influence on even non-devout
individuals, by way of the influence which it has had throughout the
centuries upon the development of the sexual mores of our Western
European-American culture. The religious codes have always and every-
where been the prime source of those social attitudes which, in their
aggregate, represent the sexual mores of all groups, devout or non-devout,
church-going or non-church-going, rational, faithful to a creed, or merely
following the custom of the land. It is, of course, often contended that
social attitudes are the product of experience and that the wisdom thus
acquired becomes the basis of the formalized systems of ethics which are
recognized by various religious bodies. In theological terms, such systems
are ascribed to divine revelation. Whether the religious, social, and legal
systems came before the social experience, or the social experience before
the formulations of the rules of behavior, is, however, a matter that needs
careful historical investigation before any final conclusions are reached.
In an older day, when church courts had authority over the life and
death of each and every individual, departures from the expressed sexual
RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND AND SEXUAL OUTLET
487
codes made the culprit painfully aware of the source of the sexual mores.
In the present day, when most of the population refuses to recognize the
jurisdiction of religious courts, the influence of the church is more indirect;
but the ancient religious codes are still the prime sources of the attitudes,
the ideas, the ideals, and the rationalizations by which most individuals
pattern their sexual hves.
No social level accepts the whole of the original Judaeo-Christian code,
but each level derives its taboos from some part of the same basic religious
philosophy. Whether sexual acts are evaluated in terms of what is right or
wrong (as the upper social level puts it), or of what is natural or unnatural
(as the lower social level considers it), the Hebraic and Christian concept
of the reproductive function of sex lies back of both interpretations. The
lower social level’s taboo on nudity (Chapter 10) has a long history in
Jewish codes and in Catholic church rulings, and the upper level’s freer
acceptance of nudity is in direct violation of church opinion. On the other
hand, the upper level accepts the church’s restrictions on pre-marital and
extra-marital intercourse (Chapter 10), while the lower level largely ignores
the religious objections on those items. Particular individuals may come
nearer to accepting the whole of the sexual code of the particular religious
group to which they belong, but the patterns of every social level depart at
some point from every church code.
These apparent conflicts between the religious codes and the patterns of
sexual behavior may lead one to overlook the religious origins of the social
patterns. Nevertheless, the individual who denies that he is in any way
influenced by church rulings still stoutly defends the church’s system of
natural law, recognizes certain behavior as normal and other activities as
unnatural, abnormal, and perverse, or considers that certain things (but
only certain things) are fine, esthetically satisfactory, socially expedient,
and decent for a mature and inteUigent male to engage in. In so contending,
he perpetuates the tradition of the Judaic law and the Christian precept.
488
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
I ] ANIMAL CONTACTS [[....L
1^^ HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET [ j NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
ADOL'15 16-ZO 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40
AGE GROUPS
Figure 126, Sources of orgasm for total U. S. population, by age groups
Summary data, corrected for distribution of age, marital status, and educational level
shown in U. S. Census of 1940. Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total out-
let derived from each source may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
CHARTS SHOWING SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
489
POST- MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
Figure 127. Types of heterosexual coitus contributing to outlet of total U. S.
population in each age period
Summary data, corrected for distribution of age, marital status, and educational level
shown in U. S. Census for 1940. Identical with Fi^re 126, except that the area of the
total heterosexual intercourse is subdivided into its several sources. Figures 126 and
127 on same scale, so direct comparisons can be made between figures.
490
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
h-
Ui
O
u.
O
H
A6E GROUPS
Figure 128. Sources of orgasm for single males of the grade school level, by
age groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
AGE GROUPS
Figure 129. Sources of orgasm for single males of the high school level, by age
groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
CHARTS SHOWING SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
491
AD0W5 16-20 21-25 26-30 31-35
AGE GROUPS
Figure 130. Sources of orgasm for single males of the college level, by age groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of ail these figures.
AHimi CONTACTS
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
INTERCOURSE WHH PROSTITUTES
INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
PETTING TO CLIMAX
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
MASTURBATION
Key to Figures 128-130
492
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
16-ZO 21-25 26-50 SI-SS 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55
AGE GROUPS
Figure 131. Sources of orgasm for married males of the grade school level, by
age groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
16-20 21-25 26-30 '31-35 36-40 41-45
AGE GROUPS
Figure 132. Sources of orgasm for married males of the high school level, by
age groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
PERCEI
CHARTS SHOWING SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
493
16-ZO 21-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-45 46-50 51-55
AGE GROUPS
Figure 133. Sources of orgasm for married males of the college level, by age
groups
Figures 126-133 on same scale, so percents of total outlet derived from each source
may be seen by direct comparisons of all these figures.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH COMPANIONS
□
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
EXTRA' MARITAL INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES |
Key to Figxires 131-133
MASTURBATION
Part III
SOURCES OF SEXUAL OUTLET
CHAPTER 14 . MASTURBATION
CHAPTER 15 . NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
CHAPTER 16 . HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
CHAPTER 17 . PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 18 . MARITAL INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 19 . EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 20 . INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
CHAPTER 21 . HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
CHAPTER 22 . ANIMAL CONTACTS
Chapter 14
MASTURBATION
The previous section of this volume has been occupied with an examina-
tion of the factors which affect human sexual behavior. Such biologic
items as age and the age at onset of adolescence, and such social factors
as educational level, occupational class of the subject and of the subject’s
parents, the rural-urban backgrounds of the individual, and the religious
backgrounds have been analyzed as factors affecting the total sexual outlet
and each of the particular types of sexual outlet. The remainder of this
volume will summarize the record for each source of outlet: masturbation
(in the present chapter), and nocturnal emissions, pre-marital intercourse,
homosexual contacts, and other sources of outlet (in the subsequent chap-
ters). Although many of the specific data in this section will be drawn from
material presented elsewhere in the book, these chapters will be especially
concerned with interpretations of the data, and will summarize the nature
of each type of behavior, emphasize the individual variation that occurs,
discuss the correlations of each type of activity with each other source of
outlet, and show something of the significance of these factors to the indi-
vidual and to the society of which he is a part.
DEFINITION
The term masturbation may be applied to any sort of self stimulation
which brings erotic arousal. Since, as we have already seen (Chapter 5), all
tactile responses and still others of the sensory responses are basic to sex-
ual activity, there is considerable justice in extending the concept of mas-
turbation to all situations in which there is tactile stimulation. Freud (1938)
and many of the analysts and other clinicians (Meagher 1924, Meagher and
Jelhffe 1936, Mowrer and Kluckhohn in Hunt 1944, Lorand 1944, Car-
michael 1946, Landis and Bolles 1946) use the word in this way, especially
in connection with the behavior of younger children. When so defined, the
phenomenon of masturbation is recognizable as universal among both
males and females, from the youngest child to the oldest adult; but this is
not the concept of masturbation held by the pubhc in general, nor by most
clinicians who inquire about it or report it in the histories of their patients.
As more usually employed, the word “masturbation” refers to any self
stimulation which is deliberate and designed to effect erotic arousal. By
such a definition, the accidental touching of oneself is not masturbation
because it is not deliberate. As so defined, not only tactile stimulation, but
all other sorts of sensory and psychic stimulation, if deliberate and de-
497
498
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
signed to bring satisfaction, fall under this head. Rubbing or scratching
one’s body, even one’s genitalia, is not masturbation when it serves some
other function than that of effecting erotic arousal. Throughout this vol-
ume the word has not been applied to anything except deliberate self
stimulation.
When so strictly defined, masturbation cannot be taken to be as uni-
versal as some of the psychiatrists and psychologists would have it. The
extension of the meaning of the word has, unfortunately, distorted the in-
terpretation of the actual data on the phenomenon; and it is to be sug-
gested that the analysts would do better to describe a good deal of what
they observe, especially among younger children, as tactile experience,
which is exactly what it is, and not call it masturbation until there is evi-
dence that the child is reaping an erotic reward for his activity, and that the
behavior has been inspired by some anticipation of such a reward.
REFERENCES
Data on the occurrence of masturbation, its incidences and frequencies
in various segments of the male population, have already been detailed in
this volume in the following tables and figures :
PAGE
TABLE
HGURE
190, 191
38
30
234
49
136-137
238-243
51
53-58
273-277
61
53-58
300-303
68
89
310-313
72 , 73
91-92
339-343
82 , 108 , 115
98 , 124
375-380
96-97
106-107
396 - 399 ,
407-413
98 , 103-105
108 , 119 , 122,123
450 - 453 , '
117
125
462
470-476
488-493
126
126 , 128-133
499-502 4 , 17 , 22 , 132 8 , 16 , 24 , 134-135
504-506 7 , 136-137
NATURE OF DATA
Sources of first ejaculation
Range of variation and age
Age and masturbation
Marital status and masturbation
Sources of first ejaculation versus age at
onset of adolescence
Age at onset of adolescence as related to
masturbation
Social level and masturbation
Masturbation in patterns of behavior at
different educational levels
Older and younger generations and mas-
turbation
Rural and urban groups and masturba-
tion
Religious backgrounds and masturbation
Significance of masturbation as one source
of total outlet
Accumulative incidence of masturbation
Individual variation in masturbation
MASTURBATION
499
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
Incidences. By even the stricter definition, masturbation may be identified
in the histories of a very high proportion of the human males. Ultimately
about 92 per cent of the total population is involved in masturbation which
leads to orgasm (Table 132, Figures 134, 135). More individuals (96%) of
the college level and 95 per cent of the high school group, are ultimately
included, fewer (89%) of the males who never go beyond grade school. The
general opinion that all males masturbate at some time in their lives, and
the easy acceptance of this opinion among many clinicians and educators,
are not warranted by the actual record. There are some individuals who do
not masturbate for the simple reason that they do not have sufficient sex
drive to cause them to go out of their way to find any sort of outlet, and
who depend on nocturnal emissions for most of their orgasms. There are
some boys, particularly at lower social levels, who do not masturbate be-
cause they become involved in heterosexual coitus at such an early age that
they have little need for other sources of outlet. There are some duller and
slower reacting individuals who find it impossible to effect orgasm in mas-
turbation, and who in consequence make no attempt to masturbate after
their first experiments. Thus there is a group of males who definitely do not
have masturbatory histories, although the percentage is as small as is in-
dicated above.
In several of the previous studies on human male sexual behavior (Mer-
rill 1918, Peck and Wells 1923, 1925, Hughes 1926, Hamilton 1929, Dick-
inson and Beam 1931, Peterson 1938, Wile 1941, Ramsey 1943, Finger
1947, Hohman and Schaffner 1947), similar incidence figures have been
obtained. It is interesting to find that a number of the European studies
report comparable incidences (85% to 96%) among European males (Roh-
leder 1902, 1921; also summary in Haire 1937). There is every reason to
believe that the lower figures obtained in some of the other American
studies (Brockman 1902, Exner 1915, Achilles 1923, Taylor 1933, Bromley
and Britten 1938) represent failures to obtain the fact. It must be realized
that masturbation is taboo and even strongly condemned among certain
groups (Chapter 10); and while college men more often admit their ex-
perience, there are males in some other groups who would admit almost
any other kind of sexual activity before they would give a record of mas-
turbatory experience. On the other hand, the high incidence of masturba-
tion in the male should not be taken as warrant for believing that there is a
similarly high incidence in the female. The data on the female will be pre-
sented in a later volume.
Pre-adolescent Activity. For two-thirds (68.4%) of the boys, self mastur-
bation provides the first ejaculation. For most of the other boys, nocturnal
emissions and heterosexual coitus provide the first ejaculation. There is
little variation in these data for different social levels. Masturbation is more
500
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Masturbation: Accumulative Incidence Data
age
total
population
u. s.
CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC.
9-
LEVEL
12
EDUC. LEVEL
13 +
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
8
3960
0.1
661
0.0
484
0.2
2815
0.0
9
3960
0.3
661
0.0
484
0.6
2815
0.3
10
3960
2.0
661
0.8
484
2.5
2815
2.3
11
3959
6.1
660
3.2
484
7.0
2815
8.9
12
3959
21.2
660
15.5
484
22.7
2815
27.9
13
3959
44.9
660
34.4
484
48.6
2815
52.9
14
3956
71.7
657
60.3
484
77.9
2815
72.2
15
3950
82.2
651
77.3
484
85.5
2815
80.2
16
3929
87.6
634
84.5
481
90.2
2814
84.3
17
3870
90.2
597
86.6
461
93.1
2812
87.0
18
3735
91.8
573
89.4
426
93.9
2736
88.9
19
3504
92.1
543
89.5
389
94.1
2572
90.0
20
3200
92.1
515
89.7
348
93.7
2337
91.1
21
2827
92.6
491
89.6
305
94.4
2031
92.0
22
2425
92.7
472
89.6
283
94.3
1670
92.8
23
2110
93.5
456
89.7
258
95.7
1396
93.3
24
1819
93.8
436
89.9
232
96.1
1151
93:1
25
1634
93.4
416
89.7
216
96.3
1002
93.9
26
1491
93.3
405
89.4
202
96.0
884
94.9
27
1356
93.1
391
89.0
191
95.8
774
95.3
28
1250
92.8
377
88.6
174
95.4
699
95.3
29
1141
92.3
353
88.1
154
94.8
634
95.0
30
1047
91.5
337
87.8
137
94.2
573
95.6
31 i
971
90.9
317
87.1
125
93.6
529
95.3
32
913
91.2
305
87.2
116
94.0
492
95.5
33 !
854
90.8
293
86.7
113
93.8
448
95.3
34
802
90.9
285
86.3
105
94.3
412
95.9
35
745
90.2
271
86.3
92
94.6
382
95.8
36
701
90.6
258
87.2
87
94.3
356
95.8
37
639
90.0
240
86.7
76
93.4
323
95.7
38
609
89.6
232
86.2
70
92.9
307
95.8
39
554
89.1
210
85.7
64
92.2
280
95.4
40
507
88.3
192
85.4
58
91.4
257
96.1
41
472
87.5
181
84.5
53
90.6
238
95.8
42
444
87.3
173
84.4
50
90.0
221
95.5
Table 132. Acciimulative incidence data on masturbation
^ Covering the life span, including both single and married histories. In three educa-
tional levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.
MASTURBATION
501
likely to provide the first experience (72%) for the boys who become ado-
lescent at an early age, less likely (52%) for the boys who are slowest in
development (Table 68, Figure 89).
The inspiration for the first experimentation in masturbation is a matter
which will need more extensive consideration in a later study on sex educa-
tion. It may be stated now that nearly all boys have heard about masturba-
tion before they attempt it themselves, and a high proportion has observed
companions masturbating. This is particularly true in the grade school and
high school levels of society; but some males of the college level will be
surprised that there are so few boys who discover masturbation on their
own initiative, because it is chiefly at that level that masturbation is inde-
pendently discovered by some boys. After early adolescence, there are
many males who never have an opportunity to observe another male in
sexual performance, and consequently it is notable that so many boys do
observe masturbation in connection with their initial experiences. The fe-
male more often discovers masturbation independently and without any
previous knowledge that any other person has ever been involved in similar
activity.
However extensive the incidental touching of genitalia may be, specific
masturbation is quite rare among younger boys. Of course, there are cases
of infants under a year of age who have learned the advantage of specific
manipulation, sometimes as a result of being so manipulated by older per-
sons ; and there are some boys who masturbate quite specifically and with
some frequency from the age of two or three. But most young boys, in at-
tempting masturbation, engage in such desultory motions and so quickly
cease their efforts that no satisfaction is obtained and they are, therefore,
not interested in trying again. When an older person provides the more
specific sort of manipulation which is usual among adults, the same child
may be much aroused, and in a high proportion of the cases may be brought
to actual orgasm (Chapter 5).
As far as the available data indicate it is, then, a relatively small number
of the younger pre-adolescents who, in any strict sense, masturbate. Not
more than 10 per cent seems to have done so before the age of nine, and 13
per cent before the age of ten. Most boys are ten, eleven or twelve years old
before they become involved. These are minimum data, derived chiefly
from the memories of adults, and adults sometimes forget their childhood
experiences. Comparisons of records from children and from adults
(Chapter 5) indicate that the actual figures may be somewhat higher, but
not more than 20 per cent higher, z.e., instead of 13 per cent it may be as
many as 16 per cent of the boys who masturbate before age ten.
There appear to be some differences between social levels in the inci-
dences of pre-adolescent masturbation, but such differences are fewer than
are ordinarily found between social levels in adolescence. Actually, few
502
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
boys begin masturbation until they are near the age when regular erotic
responses are recognizable, which means not more than a year or two be-
fore adolescence for most of them, even though a larger proportion would
be capable of definite response at a much earlier age if sufficient contacts
Figure 134. Masturbation: accumulative incidence, in total U. S. population
Showing percent of total population that has ever had masturbatory experience by
each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital
status, and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.
Figure 135. Masturbation: accumulative incidence in three educational levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever had masturbatory experience by each
of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital status.
were had. It is, of course, quite understandable that the boy should not be
interested until there is a sufficient return for his efforts.
Some of the pre-adolescents carry their masturbation through to a defi-
nite and satisfactory orgasm, although in some instances the boy may not
MASTURBATION
503
recognize what is happening, and does not identify the experience by either
name or description as something that other boys have had. Nevertheless,
masturbation in the younger boy is usually a definite sort of performance
which is often limited to a few minutes in time, and which ceases abruptly
when, as he may report, he has had enough of it. This means either that
he has reached orgasm, or that he has found at least some sort of release
from the tension which initiated the activity and which may have been aug-
mented in the course of the performance. Some adolescent boys and many
adults recall specific orgasm with all of its adult characteristics occurring
before they had acquired the ability to ejaculate; and there are definite
records (Chapter 5) on several hundred boys who have been observed in
pre-adolescent orgasm which was achieved either through self masturba-
tion or through socio-sexual contacts. Among the older psychiatrists there
are some who go so far as to state, dogmatically, that no pre-adolescent
ever experienced orgasm unless he was neurotic. Such a statement smacks
of something other than scientific objectivity and is, of course, unaccept-
able in view of the observations now at hand.
Adults are often disturbed when they discover young children masturbat-
ing, and many a clinician supports the parents’ fears and lends little com-
fort to the child who is taken to the doctor to be cured of his biologically
normal capacities. Inasmuch as nearly all boys arrive at masturbation
sooner or later, it may be asked why one should worry over pre-adolescent
or even infantile masturbation. If it is a moral issue, the answer must come
from someone else than the scientists, and be treated as a question of mor-
als (as it is in Kirsch 1930, Ruland and Rattler 1934, Fleege 1945, Davis
1946 vol. 2). If it is a question of physical outcome, the issue is for the
biologist; and it should be made clear that there is no evidence, among the
thousands of histories now at hand, that the boy who begins masturbating
at an early age suffers any more harm than the boy who delays the begin-
ning of his experience until some time in adolescence or later. And most
scientists and clinicians are now agreed that masturbation does no harm
at the later ages.
If the question is one of social values, it may be stated that there is no
record of early masturbation disturbing the child’s adjustments except in
some of the cases where adults discovered the activity, reprimanded or
punished the youngster, made a public exhibition of the offense, or upset
the child’s peace of mind in some other way. Even the parents who try to
avoid reprimands may cause some disturbance in the child because they,
the parents themselves, are inhibited, or because they are not accustomed
to observing sexual behavior of any sort. It takes no more than a show of
surprise on the part of the parent, a supercilious smile, or even a studied
avoidance of the issue to make it apparent to the child that the parent is
emotionally upset, and that sexual activity is in a different category from
504
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Figure 136. Masturbation: individual variation in frequencies, at ages adolescent-
15 and 16“20, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which masturbates with each
type of frequency (horizontal line)^
Masturbation
505
Figure 137. Masturbation: individual variation in frequencies, at ages 21-25 and
26-30, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which masturbates with each type
of frequency (horizontal line).
506
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
other everyday affairs. Children, even infants and very young children, are
especially sensitive to the reactions of other persons. If the child is seriously
disturbed over his behavior, the disturbance may color his personality
throughout life, as the psychiatrist and psychologist well know.
For the parent who intends that the child, or even the older adolescent,
shall not be upset over masturbation, it is a matter of accepting the be-
havior without allowing it to appear important (Weiss and English 1943),
while still making it clear that such activity in front of other individuals
may bring social difficulties. The careful adjustments which are worked out
in the home may be completely upset by the violent reactions of other chil-
dren or adults who become aware of the child’s masturbation. Neverthe-
less, there are cases of parents who have succeeded in accomplishing this
delicate adjustment between things that are acceptable in the home and
things that other people outside the home “just don’t understand.”
Adolescent Activity. When specific masturbation does occur in pre-
adolescence, it is almost invariably continued into adolescence.
For most males, of every social level, masturbation provides the chief
source of sexual outlet in early adolescence. It is at that period that the
activity reaches its highest frequencies. For those males who subsequently
turn to socio-sexual contacts for their pre-marital outlet, masturbatory
frequencies will never again be so high.
Masturbation and pre-marital intercourse are the only types of sexual
activity which show something of the same range of individual variation
(Table 49, Figures 136, 137) as is shown by total outlet (Chapter 6). There
are males who never masturbate. There are a few males who masturbate
only once or twice in their lives ; and there are others who have frequencies
that may average seven to fourteen or twenty or more per week for long
periods of years. There are males whose high frequencies extend from pre-
adolescence through all of the pre-marital years, and males who may main-
tain average frequencies of three or four a week through the marital years
into old age. There are a few males who are still masturbating at seventy-
five years of age, but there are no older ones in the available record whose
masturbation results in orgasm. Some males may masturbate several thou-
sand times as often as some others in the population. The statement about
lack of harmful outcome still applies to these most active cases. In the
present records, the highest-rating males were masturbating with average
frequencies of 23 per week in early adolescence. These maximum average
frequencies drop to 15 per week by twenty years of age, to 6 per week by
fifty years of age, and to once in two weeks at sixty years of age. It is about
then that the older males are most inclined to warn the adolescent boy that
masturbation will certainly harm him if he does it to excess.
For the active population, average frequencies of masturbation in early
adolescence are nearly two and a half (2.4) per week, but a goodly number
508
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
(Table 82). At the college level, masturbation involves most of the males
(96%) and continues to be the chief source (about 60%) of the outlet up
until the time of marriage. More than two-thirds (69%) of the college-bred
males have some masturbation in their histories after marriage, and this
provides no small part (about 9%) of the total outlet of the group after
marriage. On the other hand, masturbation in the more poorly educated
groups may begin to drop out almost immediately after it is begun. There
are lower level males who have masturbated only a single time or two, or a
few times in their lives. Some of them may masturbate for a year or two,
but then stop. By sixteen years of age 16 per cent of them has stopped mas-
turbating, and nearly 40 per cent has stopped by the time age twenty has
been passed. In these late teens masturbation supplies only about a fourth
(29.2%) of the outlet for the lower level males. Most males of this level find
it difficult to understand how a grown man could think of masturbating,
particularly if he is married and living with his wife.
The average frequencies of masturbation differ between social levels,
more than the incidences. Average frequencies (active population) for the
boys of the grade school level, between adolescence and fifteen years of
age, are 1 .8 per week ; for the corresponding high school level, 2.2 per week ;
for the boys who will ultimately go to college, 2.7 per week (Table 82). The
differences in frequencies become greater in the later age groups, and be-
tween adolescence and marriage the males of the college level masturbate
more than twice as frequently as the males of the grade school level.
At lower levels there are definite taboos against masturbation. These
may be fortified with the explanation that masturbation will drive one
crazy, give one pimples, make one weak, or do some other sort of physical
harm. More often masturbation is simply rejected because it is considered
unnatural. The entire sexual philosophy at this level is turned around the
acceptance of what is natural and the rejection of activities that are un-
natural. The upper level’s wider acceptance of masturbation is rationalized
on the ground that scientific investigation shows that it does no physical
harm. Actually, however, the acceptance of masturbation in the upper
level is probably the result of the very strong taboos which that group has
against pre-marital intercourse. It is not a case of liking masturbation more,
so much as it is a case of liking non-marital heterosexual relations less.
The masturbatory records of older and younger generations of males
from the college level are practically identical, both as to the percentage of
persons involved and the frequencies of the activity (Tables 98, 104). The
present-day masturbatory pattern of the college level male goes back at
least twenty-two years; but there is a more conscious, more generally
verbalized acceptance of the reality among college-bred males today.
Moreover, the upper level attitude and its scientific acceptance of mas-
turbation seems to have extended to at least some of the more poorly edu-
MASTURBATION
509
cated males in the population. For the younger generation of the grade
school level, for instance, masturbation begins earlier, includes more per-
sons, and is had nearly twice as frequently as it was had in the older gen-
eration.
Boys in rural areas masturbate less often than boys raised in cities or
towns, especially during adolescence (Table 117). But since the farm boy
has a somewhat lower total outlet than the city boy, and since the farm boy
has definitely lower rates of socio-sexual contacts, masturbation provides
a higher percentage of his total outlet than it does for the city boy.
Masturbation occurs with the lowest incidences and frequencies among
Jewish males who are Orthodox and among devout Catholics, and it occurs
with the highest frequencies among religiously inactive Protestants (Table
126). The religious codes, both Jewish and Christian, have been the prime
source of the taboos on masturbation (Chapter 13).
TECHNIQUES
In the human male, masturbatory techniques are largely manual. They
usually constitute a deliberate attempt to provide genital stimulation which
will result in the satisfaction of orgasm. There are very few males who de-
liberately avoid orgasm as the conclusion of the activity, although a few
of them may deliberately prolong the act into a matter of several minutes
or more — sometimes to half an hour or an hour or more, in order to ex-
tend the sensory satisfaction. Most males carry the activity through to
climax as rapidly as is possible, which means it does not ordinarily continue
for more than a minute or two. Some males, indeed, are able to achieve
orgasm quite regularly in a half minute or so, sometimes in ten or twenty
seconds.
There are some boys who attempt to masturbate by moving the penis
against a bed or against some other object; but for most males this tech-
nique is rare and confined to an incidental experience or two. Surprisingly
enough, this method seems to be common only among the males of a par-
ticular group; but the specific data are insutficient to present at this time,
and it has been impossible to get any clue as to the origin or significance
of this pattern. Many of the persons who depend upon this mode of mas-
turbation think of the act as a substitute for heterosexual coitus, and there
are some clinicians who specifically recommend such a technique, in con-
junction with fantasy, on the ground that it may provide some carry-over
into later heterosexual activity. But however good the theory may appear
to be, it finds no substantiation in the specific record, for the great major-
ity of the boys use simpler manual techniques in masturbation, and make
perfectly satisfactory heterosexual adjustments anyway. It is also to be
noted that males have been known to masturbate against a bed while
fantasying frictation or anal relations in the homosexual.
510
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Self fellation is an anatomic impossibility for most human males, but it is
a common means of masturbation among rhesus monkeys, the macaque,
mandrille, chimpanzees and other primates (Carpenter 1942, National Re-
search Council Conference on Mammalian Sex Behavior, 1943), and oc-
curs quite widely among mammals of many other groups (Beach 1947).
Throughout vertebrate sexual behavior there is such a close tie-up between
oral eroticism and genital stimulation that oral activity of any sort must be
accepted by the scientist as a biologically normal aspect of sexuality. Its
tremendous suppression in the human animal must be taken to be the out-
come of cultural developments. Consequently, it is not surprising to find
that the human male, with his animal background, does sometimes at-
tempt self fellation. It has taken special interviewing techniques (Chapter 2)
to get adults to admit such experience, but a considerable portion of the
population does record attempts at self fellation, at least in early adoles-
cence. Only two or three males in a thousand are able to achieve the ob-
jective, but there are three or four histories of males who had depended
upon self fellation as a masturbatory technique for some appreciable period
of time — in the case of one thirty-year old male, for most of his life. In his
psychic drive, the human animal is more mammalian than even his anat-
omy allows him to be.
Only a limited number of individuals extend their masturbatory tech-
niques to involve any variety of other procedures. Such experimentation is
most often found among better educated individuals who have well de-
veloped imaginative capacities and who are, of course, the ones most likely
to have a minimum of overt socio-sexual contacts. The manual techniques
of genital manipulation are elaborated by a few individuals. The use of
literature and erotic pictures for stimulation during masturbation is not
really common, and it is largely confined to better educated individuals.
Urethral insertions and other masochistic techniques, and anal stimulation
and anal insertions occur only very occasionally. Sometimes devices which
simulate the female genitalia may be used for masturbation, but they are
rarely employed. Most males restrict themselves to a limited series of par-
ticular techniques to which they have been erotically conditioned.
Nearly, but not quite, all males experience sexual fantasies during mas-
turbation. The female fantasies much less often while masturbating. Mas-
turbatory fantasies accord with the general psychiatric and psychologic
understanding of the matter. The fantasies are heterosexual when the pri-
mary interests of the individual are heterosexual, homosexual when the in-
dividual’s overt experience or psychic reactions are homosexual. They may
be alternately heterosexual and homosexual in the case of the individual
who reacts definitely in both directions. The fantasies may include animal
contacts for boys who have had such animal experience as some farm boys
have. There are occasional sadistic or masochistic fantasies. Just as with
MASTURBATION
511
nocturnal dreams (Chapter 15), there may be some striking disparities be-
tween the nature of the fantasies accompanying masturbation and the overt
experience of the male, and one cannot discover the history of an individual
merely by finding out what he thinks about when he masturbates.
Where the masturbatory techniques are manual, many individuals find
some additional stimulation in observing their own genitalia ; and this may
have some homosexual significance, although most persons with such his-
tories may deny any other homosexual interests. A considerable portion of
the pre-eminently homosexual males whose homosexual activities involve
mutual masturbation or oral techniques do observe their own genitalia
during self masturbation; but not even all of them do so. Some of the most
vigorously heterosexual males, however, carefully avoid any observation
of their genitalia during masturbation, and their performances depend pri-
marily upon involved heterosexual fantasies. Many of these persons mas-
turbate in the dark, in order to concentrate the better upon the imagery.
It is an important question whether masturbation should be interpreted as
a narcissistic performance or a socio-sexual activity, and one is not war-
ranted in considering that all masturbation is a matter of self interest. There
are some individuals for whom masturbation is a distinctly heterosexual or
a distinctly homosexual experience, depending upon the strength of the
fantasy and the abundance of the associations which complement the ac-
tivity.
CORRELATIONS WITH OTHER OUTLETS
It has not been possible to make precise correlations between the fre-
quencies of the various types of sexual outlet for the present study; and at
this time the relations between masturbation and the other outlets may only
be suggested in the most general terms.
There may be some correlation between the frequencies of masturbation
and the frequencies of nocturnal dreams. In general, the males who have the
highest frequencies of nocturnal emissions may have somewhat lower rates
of masturbation. Some of these males credit the frequent emissions to the
fact that they do not masturbate; but it is just as likely that the reverse re-
lationship is true, namely, that they do not masturbate because they have
frequent emissions.
On the other hand, there is little evidence that high frequencies of mas-
turbation reduce the frequencies of nocturnal emissions (Chapter 15). Even
where there are high masturbatory frequencies and low frequencies of noc-
turnal emissions, the possibihty should not be overlooked that those par-
ticular males nevdr would have had frequent emissions, even if they had
stopped masturbating.
There may be some relationship between masturbation and pre-marital
petting with females. Both of these activities are most frequent at upper
levels, but it is probable that both are the products of the upper level sexual
512
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
philosophy, rather than the products of each other. Nevertheless, the gen-
ital manipulations which are employed in masturbation may provide some
introduction to the techniques of heterosexual petting.
Masturbation sometimes shows a complementary relationship with pre-
marital coitus. Where the one is high, the other is likely to be lower. Where
there is sufficient coitus, it may be that there is not much need for masturba-
tion. On the other hand, it remains to be demonstrated that a sufficiency of
masturbation reduces the incentive to find a socio-sexual outlet. There are
those who believe so, and recommend masturbation as a means of con-
trolling what they consider the more immoral pre-marital activity. There
are also those, including not a few psychiatrists, who feel that it would be
unfortunate if pre-marital masturbation reduced the urge to make a hetero-
sexual adjustment. It will take a carefully objective study to show what the
real relationships may be.
Any relation which may exist between masturbation and the homosexual
similarly needs to be studied in detail (Taylor 1933). It has already been
suggested that an interest in one’s own genitalia may be transferred to an
interest in the genitalia of another individual of the same sex. Certainly
there are some records of the sort in the histories now at hand ; but the
number of clear-cut cases is not large. Careful analyses of a considerable
series of individual histories should be made before any conclusion is
reached on these matters.
Even some of the animal contacts which the farm boy has may have been
inspired by his own masturbatory experience, for the masturbation of farm
animals and of household pets is about as frequent as coitus or oral rela-
tions with the animals. In a considerable number of cases the boy’s relation
is had with a male animal which he masturbates. If the boy is erotically
aroused in such a case, the relationship may involve some homosexual ele-
ment, as well as the zodphilic.
SIGNIFICANCE OF MASTURBATION
There are no other sexual activities which involve anywhere near so
many individuals as are involved in heterosexual coitus and masturbation ;
and there are no other activities which provide so large a proportion of the
total orgasms which the average male experiences in his lifetime. For most
males, coitus is primary, masturbation secondary in importance; but for
males of the college level masturbation is, as we have seen, the chief source
of outlet up to the time of marriage. It is a question whether activities which
are as important as these can be altogether ignored, easily regulated, or
completely ruled out of the lives of any large number of people. Unmarried
youths who had neither masturbation nor coitus (nor the homosexual) in
their histories would be left with essentially no outlet except nocturnal
emissions. That would nearly amount to abstinence, for such emissions do
MASTURBATION
513
not ordinarily account for more than 10 or 12 per cent of the orgasms of
any group of males, and there is no evidence that the frequencies of such
emissions can be materially increased by avoiding other sexual activities
(Chapter 15). The moral desirability of eliminating masturbation is, of
course, an issue whose merits scientists are not qualified to judge. Whether
such a program is psychologically or socially desirable or physically pos-
sible for any large number of males is a question that can be submitted to
scientific examination (Chapter 6).
Throughout history, both the Jewish and Christian churches have con-
demned masturbation as either immoral or unnatural (Chapter 13). In
more recent years, with an increase in public respect for science, the moral
arguments have been supported with statements concerning the physical
and mental harm supposed to come from the continuance of such a habit.
The older males who have contributed to the present study were adolescent
in a day in which there was widespread teaching against the sin of self-
abuse (e.g„ Vecki 1901, 1920, G. S. Hall 1904, W. S. Hall 1907, 1909, 1920,
Boy Scout Manual, all editions 1911-1945, Jefferis and Nichols 1912,
Wulffen 1913, Lieber 1920, U. S. Public Health Service 1921, 1934,
Coppens and Spalding 1921, Forel 1922, Meyer 1927, 1929a, 1929b,
Weatherhead 1932, Bloch 1933, Crisp 1939, T. V. Moore 1945). Every
conceivable ill from pimples to insanity, including stooped shoulders, loss
of weight, fatigue, insomnia, general weakness, neurasthenia, loss of manly
vigor, weak eyes, digestive upsets, stomach ulcers, impotence, feeble-
mindedness, genital cancer, and the rest, was ascribed to masturbation.
Feeble-minded and insane individuals in the neighborhood were held
up as horrid examples of the result of masturbation, and the authorities in
mental institutions maintained separate wards for those whose insanity
was supposed to have originated from such practices. Patients in such in-
stitutions were observed to engage in frequent masturbation, and this
seemed sufficient proof that the insanity was a product of the sexual be-
havior. Since the lives of university scholars were not so easily observed, it
was not so generally known that masturbation occurred quite as frequently
among them. Thousands of patients in mental institutions were put into
strait jackets or other restraints, on the assumption that they had no chance
of recovery unless the masturbation was controlled and cured. There are
mental institutions which are operated on the same theory today. In many
penal institutions inmates may still be punished severely if found mastur-
bating, and in some homes for children and in some other institutions the
older attitudes are still enforced. The United States Naval Academy at An-
napolis rules that a candidate “shall be rejected by the examining surgeon
for . . . evidence of . . . masturbation” (U. S. Navy Dpt. 1940).
Millions of boys have lived in continual mental conflict over this prob-
lem. For that matter, many a boy still does. Many boys pass through a pe-
514
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
riodic succession of attempts to stop the habit, inevitable failures in those
attempts, consequent periods of remorse, the making of new resolutions —
and a new start on the whole cycle. It is diflScult to imagine anything better
calculated to do permanent damage to the personality of an individual.
For several decades now, educators, clinical psychologists and psychia-
trists, and some of the general medical practitioners have come to agree
that the physical effects of masturbation are not fundamentally different
from the physical effects of any other sexual activity, and that any mental
harm resulting from masturbation is an outcome of the conflicts introduced
by the condemnation of the boy’s activity (e.g., Tenenbaum in Robinson
1936, Willoughby 1937, Haire 1937, Butterfield 1939, Himes 1940, Kirk-
endall 1940, Allen 1940, Weiss and English 1943, Sadler and Sadler 1944,
English and Pearson 1945, Frank 1946, Seward 1946).
In the present study we have examined the histories of 5300 males, of
which about 5100 record experience in masturbation. It would be difficult
to show that the masturbatory activities have done measurable damage to
any of these individuals, with the very rare exception of the psychotic who
is compulsive in his behavior. On the other hand, the record does include
thousands of cases of boys living in continual conflict, fearful of social dis-
grace, oftentimes disturbed over the effect of such behavior on their ulti-
mate sexual capacities, occasionally attempting suicide — as a result of the
teachings concerning masturbation. For the boys who have not been too
disturbed psychically, masturbation has, however, provided a regular
sexual outlet which has alleviated nervous tensions; and the record is clear
in many cases that these boys have on the whole lived more balanced lives
than the boys who have been more restrained in their sexual activities
(Chapter 6). The resolution adopted at an American Medical Association
convention in 1917 asserting that there is no evidence that abstinence from
sex activity is “inconsistent with the highest physical, mental and moral
efficiency” would be questioned by most clinical psychologists and psychia-
trists today, and is definitely contrary to the findings in the present study
(Chapter 6).
The scientific judgments are, however, not fully accepted by the persons
who have been most interested in sex education (Bigelow 1916, Eddy 1928a,
1928b, Elliott and Bone 1929, Amer. Soc. Hyg. Assoc. 1930, Dickerson
1930, 1933, Rice 1933, Strain 1934, Ellis 1936, Snow 1937, Henry 1938,
Rosanoff 1938, Stone and Stone 1937, Eaton and Bafiey 1940, Lovell 1940,
Gruenberg and Kaukonen 1940, Corner and Landis 1941, Boys Club
Amer. 1946, Hyman 1946, Landis and BoUes 1946, Thornton 1946,
Popenoe 1946).
In this literature it has become customary to admit that the earlier teach-
ings greatly exaggerated the possible harms of masturbation; but the con-
MASTURBATION
515
elusion is nevertheless reached that no manly youth will want to accept
such a habit as part of his lifelong pattern. The boy is advised that a lim-
ited amount of masturbation may do him no harm, but that in excess it is
something which needs the attention of a physician. Since the point at
which excess begins is never defined, the conscientious boy is left uncertain
whether his own rate is going to harm him; and psychiatrists will quickly
recognize that such subtle and indirect condemnation can do as much
damage to the boy’s personality as the more extreme teaching of the older
day. One needs to be reminded again (as in Chapter 6) that there is tre-
mendous individual variation in the human male’s capacity to engage in
sexual activity without undue fatigue or other physical harm. Some in-
dividuals reach their limits when they experience orgasm once in a week
or two. The average adolescent boy is quite capable of three or four ejacu-
lations per week, and there are boys who are capable of seven to fourteen or
more per week without incurring any greater disturbance than that which
accompanies the infrequent activities of less capable males. Like many
other physiologic functions, erotic response depends upon a remarkably
foolproof mechanism. When one reaches the limit of physiologic endurance
he no longer responds erotically. He is no longer capable of erection and
finds little incentive to force the situation. Once or twice in a lifetime a few
of the males may try to establish a record of repeated orgasms, and ex-
treme fatigue and even some local pain may -result; but, except by a few
psychotics, this type of performance is not likely to be repeated.
Many of the persons who are responsible for the compromised attitudes
found in the sex literature cited above are physicians. Even psychiatrists
are divided on this question. In general, those who were raised in Europe,
as were many of the psychiatrists who are now in this country, consider
masturbation an infantile substitute for heterosexual coitus, which latter
activity they take to be synonymous with a good sexual adjustment. Often
these clinicians are amazed to find masturbation persisting into the adult
Uves of American males, and look upon masturbation in the history of the
married male as nothing short 'of pathologic. This is, of course, merely a
rationalization of their own European mores. American psychiatrists, on
the contrary, with their American backgrounds, are much more acceptant
of the same activity.
Although masturbation may do no physical harm, and although it may
do no mental harm unless psychic conflicts are involved, it still remains to
be determined what relations there may be between masturbation and
socio-sexual adjustments (Henry 1938). It is now clear that masturbation
is relied upon by the upper level primarily because it has an insufficient
outlet through heterosexual coitus. Thi$ is, to a degree, an escape from re-
ality, and the effect upon the ultimate personality of the individual is some-
thing that needs consideration. It is to be noted again (Chapter 1 1) that at
516
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
age fifty-five the college-bred males derive only 62 per cent of their total
outlet from marital intercourse, and that 19 per cent of the outlet at that
age is derived from the dream world which accompanies masturbation or
nocturnal emissions. Any final assay of the significance of masturbation
should take these and still other specific data into account.
Chapter 15
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
It is possible that the first sexual responses of an infant or younger pre-
adolescent could be evoked by physical stimulation alone; but the human
animal is always conditioned by its experiences, and its reactions may come
to depend as much upon the previous experience as upon any immediate
stimuli. The evidence accumulates that the physical is usually a minor ele-
ment in evoking sexual responses among older males, and there are few of
the responses of an experienced adult which would be possible without a
sufficient psychologic accompaniment.
Time and again a male may fail to respond to particular physical con-
tacts, while responding almost instantly to more minor stimulation which
comes under other circumstances (Vecki 1920, Haire 1937, Lovell 1940,
Weiss and English 1943). His responses in the heterosexual may be imme-
diate, while he experiences a minimum of arousal, or none at all, when sub-
jected to identical techniques in contact with another male. The next male’s
responses, on the contrary, may be immediate in the homosexual, and com-
pletely fail in the heterosexual. Some males are impotent when they attempt
extra-marital intercourse, although they may be perfectly potent with their
own wives. Other males may become impotent with their wives and capable
of performing only with extra-marital partners. There are a few males who
are impotent when they attempt to masturbate, although they are potent
enough under other circumstances. There are males who are potent and re-
spond to the point of orgasm in petting, although they block and become
incapable of performing when they attempt actual coitus. Such differential
impotency emphasizes the importance of the psychic element in sexual ac-
tivities.
Except for inexperienced children, most males come to erection if there
is any considerable arousal, even before they have made physical contacts.
The exceptions include those males who have had such an abundance of
sexual activity (as among certain lower level groups) that they are psycho-
logically satisfied or even fatigued; and among upper level groups, where
psychic stimulation means most to the individual, there are some males who
do not erect in anticipation of a sexual situation because they are inhibited
by moral or social training. This further emphasizes the importance of the
psychic factor in a sexual relation.
Three or four adult males, out of the more than 5000 in the present study,
have been able to ejaculate by deliberately concentrating on sexual fan-
517
518
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
tasies, without any genital manipulation. In such a case the psychic stimu-
lation is entirely responsible for the result. Spontaneous ejaculation occurs
most often among young adolescent boys. A list of situations which bring
spontaneous ejaculation in the younger male has already been given
(Chapter 5). Some of the climaces reached in heterosexual petting may
amount to spontaneous ejaculation without genital stimulation. Orgasm
from purely psychic sources may occur more often in the female.
Psychic stimulation during sleep is a more familiar phenomenon. It re-
sults in orgasm much more often than does psychic stimulation during
waking hours. This is probably due to the fact that one is not so inhibited
during sleep. Orgasm as the product of nocturnal dreams is well known in
the male, but it is not so generally understood that similar orgasm during
sleep is not uncommon in the female, especially in the older and sexually
more experienced female (Ellis 1936). In the male, nocturnal emissions or
wet dreams are generally accepted as a usual part of the sexual picture.
There are many nocturnal sex dreams which do not result in orgasm for
the male. There are some males who may have sex dreams with considerable
frequency, even every night, without ever experiencing orgasm, unless it be
in their early years. On the other hand, there are some who regularly have
nocturnal emissions but are unable to recall that such experiences were ever
accompanied by dreams. If the absence of the dreams could be absolutely
established in these cases, they would be perfect instances of orgasm from
physical or physiologic stimulation alone. Most psychologists and psychi-
atrists, however, hesitate to believe that emissions ever result from internal
forces which do not have psychosexual backgrounds. Generally such emis-
sions are considered to be products of dreams that are forgotten by their
author, and we incline to this interpretation. Proving that an emission
could occur without a psychic accompaniment would, however, be of such
great importance that a series of experiments should be devised for testing
these unusual individuals.
Throughout the present volume, nocturnal dreams have been recorded
as outlets only when they have led to actual ejaculation; but all ejaculation
during sleep has been recorded, whether reported with or without dreams.
REFERENCES
Specific data on the incidences and frequencies of nocturnal emissions,
in various age groups and in various social divisions of the population,
have already been given in tables and charts, and in earlier discussions in
this volume, as follows :
PAGE
TABLE
HGURE
NATURE OF DATA
190-191
38
30
Sources of first ejaculation
234
49
139-140
Range of variation and age
243-245
52
59-64
Age and nocturnal emissions
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
519
PAGE
TABLE
FIGURE
NATURE OF DATA
277
62
59-64
Marital status and nocturnal emissions
300-303
68
89
Sources of first ejaculation and age at on-
set of adolescence
315,319
79
Lack of correlation between nocturnal
emissions and age at onset of adoles-
cence
342-345
83, 109, 115
99, 139
Social level and nocturnal emissions
376-382
96-97
106-107
Nocturnal emissions in patterns of sexual
behavior
396-399
407-413
98, 103-105
109, 120
Older and younger generations and noc-
turnal emissions
452-453,
462
118
125
Rural and urban groups and nocturnal
emissions
474-477
127
Religious backgrounds and nocturnal
emissions
488-493
126, 128-133
Significance of nocturnal emissions as one
source of total outlet
519-525
4, 18, 22, 133
9,17, 22,138-139
Accumulative incidence of nocturnal
emissions
519-525
140
Individual variation in nocturnal emis-
sions
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
A high percentage of all males experience nocturnal emissions at some
time in their lives. Ultimately, about 83 per cent is involved (Table 133,
Figure 138). There is 17 per cent of the male population that never seems
to have nocturnal emissions. Somewhat similar data have been reported by
some other investigators (Achilles 1923, Peck and Wells 1923, 1925,
Hughes 1926, Hamilton 1929, Willoughby 1937). The figures differ con-
siderably for different social levels, the highest incidence being among those
males who go to college and the lowest among males of the grade school
level.
Over 99 per cent of the males who go to college have nocturnal emis-
sions at some time in their lives, but only 85 per cent of the high school
males, and only 75 per cent of the males who never go beyond grade school
(Table 133, Figure 139). The high incidence figures given in some of the
previous studies (e.g., Peterson 1938) apply, obviously, only to the college
populations on which the data were based.
Nocturnal emissions never account for any large portion of the total
number of orgasms experienced by the male population (Table 52, Fig-
ures 60, 63). For instance, the single males of the college level who are in
their twenties, derive about one-sixth (12% to 16%) of their total outlet
from this source. For the high school level it is about 8 per cent, but at the
grade school level less than 6 per cent of the outlet is so derived. Among
married males, emissions account for something between 2 per cent and 6
per cent of the total outlet.
520
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Nocturnal Emissions: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
1
TOTAL
POPULATION
U. S.
CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
i
EDUC.
9-
LEVEL
•12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
8
3986
0.1
681
0.0
494
0.2
2811
0.0
9
3986
0.1
681
0.0
494
0.2 i
2811
0.0
10
3986
0.2
681
0.0
494
0.2
2811
0.5
11
3985
0.8
680
0.3 i
494
0.4
2811
3.2
12
3985
3.3
680
1.0
494
2.4
2811
11.6
13
3985
9.8
680
3.7
494
8.1
2811
29.1
14
3982
25.3
677
11.8
494
25.7
2811
52.2
15
3976
39.6
671
25.3
494
39.9
2811
68.9
16
.1955
54.1
654
39.1
491
55.6
2810
80.7
17
3896
63.1
617
47.5
471
65.6
2808
87.0
18
3758
71.4
590
56.9
436
74.3
2732
91.0
19
3527
73.6
560
60.2
399
76.2
2568
92.6
20
3222
77.0
532
65.8
357
79.0
2333
93.6
21
2848
78.7
508
67.5
313
80.8
2027
94.5
22
2446
80.0
488
70.1
290
81.7
1668
94.7
23
2131
81.8
472
70.8
264
84.5
1395
94.8
24
1839
81.5
452
71.9
237
83.1
1150
95.7
25
1654
81.5
432
73.1
221
83.7
1001
96.2
26
1510
81.6
420
73.8
207
83.1
883
96.5
27
1374
81.9
405
73.6
196
84.2
773
96.2
28
1268
82.9
391
74.2
179
85.5
698
96.6
29
1159
83.2
367
74.9
159
85.5
633
96.8
30
1064
82.8
351
76.1 ‘
141
85.1
572 i
97.2
31
988
82.7
331
75.5
129
85.3
528
97.3
32
929
82.9
319
76.2
119
84.9
491
97.6
33
868
82.5
305
75.7
116
84.5
447
97.5
34
814
82.6
296
75.3
107
85.0
411
98.1
35
757
81.2
282
74.8
94
85.1
381
98.4
36
713
81.0
269
74.3
89
85.4
355
98.6
37
651
80.6
251
74.1
78
84.6
1 322
98.4
38
620
81.1
242
74.8
72
84.7
306
98.7
39
565
80.3
220
74.1
66
83.3
, 279
98.6
40
516
78.8
200
73.5
i 60
81.7 '
! 256
1 99.2
41
480
78.0
188
72.9
55
80.0
237
99.6
42
452
77.2
180
72.2
; 52
i 78.8
220
99.5
43
405
77.0
! 164
71.3
I 50
80.0
191
99.5
Table 133. Accumulative incidence data on nocturnal emissions
_ Covering the life span, including both single and married histories. In three educa-
tional levels, and in the total population corrected for the U, S. Census of 1940.
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
521
As might be expected, there is considerable variation among individuals
in the frequencies with which they have nocturnal emissions (Figure 140).
There are males who never ejaculate in their sleep, and more males who
have only a few wet dreams in their lives. There are also some who experi-
ence orgasm practically every time they awaken from sleep, even though
that may be two or three times in a single night. Sometimes emissions may
accompany daytime naps. Among men who have been suddenly deprived
of some drug to which they have been addicted, emissions may occur sev-
eral times in each twenty-four hours, for two or three weeks or more. For
most males during their earlier years, nocturnal emissions are usually
monthly or bi-monthly, rarely weekly or more than weekly events.
The frequencies of nocturnal emissions are, as might have been antici-
pated, highest among males of the college level (Table 83, Figure 99). They
occur less frequently among the males who never go beyond high school,
and even less often among the males who never go beyond grade school
(Chapter 10). In their younger adolescent years, the boys who will go to
college have 7 times as frequent dreams as the boys who never go beyond
grade school. In the later teens the differences are nearly 3 to 1 in favor of
the college males. They are almost 2 to 1 among the males who are still
single at 30 years of age. The frequencies of nocturnal dreams of any sort,
sexual or otherwise, appear to have some correlation with the imaginative
capacities of an individual. The sexual life of a male of a lower educational
level is primarily dependent upon actual physical contacts. He is aroused
during his waking hours by relatively few psychic stimuli, and he rarely
utilizes such secondhand sources of stimulation as art, literature, nude pic-
tures, stories, or specifically pornographic materials to accompany or sub-
stitute for overt sex acts. At night he probably does less dreaming, of any
sort, than the better educated male, and his sex dreams are certainly not
frequent.
At all social levels, nocturnal emissions occur most abundantly before
marriage. Ultimately about 85 per cent of the unmarried males are involved.
After marriage a number of the males have their nocturnal emissions re-
duced or altogether stopped, and the accumulative incidence figure for the
married population is something under 60 per cent. At most ages in mar-
riage the frequencies are only two-thirds as high as they are among un-
married males. Since the total outlets of married males are much higher
than those of the single males, nocturnal emissions provide only a small
part, 2 to 6 per cent, of the outlet after marriage (Chapter 8). Among those
males who have been previously married but who have been divorced or
otherwise separated from their wives, nocturnal emissions may begin again,
even though they were absent during the married years ; but the average
frequencies in the post-marital group remain at the same low levels as
among married males.
522
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
100
AGE
Figure 138. Nocturnal emissions: accumulative incidence in total U. S.
population
Showing percent of total population that has ever experience^! nocturnal emissions by
each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population^ irrespective of marital
status, and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.
Figure 139. Nocturnal emissions: accumulative incidence in three educational
levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever had nocturnal emissions by
each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital
status.
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
523
In all social groups, nocturnal emissions are primarily an outlet of
younger adolescent and older teen-age boys. It is interesting to find that
they ordinarily do not begin with the first signs of adolescence (Chapters
5, 9). Most boys obtain their first orgasms through self stimulation or from
physical contacts with other individuals, either in late pre-adolescence or
immediately with the onset of adolescence. It is probable that all boys are
capable of such orgasm as soon as they turn adolescent, and most of them
would be capable at least a year or two before the onset of adolescence.
However, the first orgasms resulting from dreams ordinarily do not come
until a year or more after the onset of adolescence (Chapter 10). Even in
those cases where nocturnal emissions provide the very first experiences in
orgasm, they almost invariably begin a year or more after the other ado-
lescent developments (pubic hair, voice change, growth in height, etc.)
are under way.
These data provide some measure of the relative positions of the physical
and the psychic in the sex life of the human animal. It is for a similar reason
that fantasies often do not begin to accompany masturbation until a year
or more after such self stimulation has begun. Although the psychic may
play a considerable part in even the earliest sexual experiences of pre-
adolescent males, and becomes important soon after the onset of ado-
lescence, it ordinarily does not become very significant until there has been
a certain amount of physical experience.
The highest incidence and frequency figures of nocturnal emissions (for
the population taken as a whole) come in the late teens, during which pe-
riod fully 70 per cent of the males experience orgasm in sleep (Table 52).
The frequencies then average about once in four weeks. If the experienced
males alone are used in the calculations, the highest frequencies of noc-
turnal emissions occur between adolescence and fifteen, at rates of about
once in three weeks. From that point, both the incidence and frequency
figures go down, and the dreams become few after age thirty and are largely
out of the picture after age forty. Beyond fifty years of age nocturnal emis-
sions rarely occur more often than four or five times a year, if they occur
at all. There are, however, a few cases of nocturnal emissions occurring
among still older males, even between the ages of seventy-six and eighty.
Among boys of the high school and college levels, the emissions be-
tween adolescence and age fifteen occur most frequently among those who
became adolescent before eleven or twelve. On the other hand, they provide
a higher percentage of the total outlet for those boys who reach adoles-
cence last, and some of these males depend largely or exclusively on
nocturnal emissions for their total sexual outlet. The early-adolescent boys
more frequently depend on masturbation, heterosexual coitus, and the
homosexual.
524
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
%rl 0=40 4%
AGE GROUP • ADOL- 15 50
EDUC LEVEL 0-5 - \
-t.O -L5 -^.0 -Z5 -30 0 -0.5 -LO
% ^
AGE GROUP -AOOL- 15 r \
EOUC LEVEL 9-12 iqL \
•1.0 H.5 -2 0 -2.5 -3,0 0 -0.5 -1.0
A
A
age GROUP >AD0L -IS rrx / \
EOUC LEVEL 15+ / * \
-1.0 -1.S -2.0 -2.5 -3 0 0 -0.5 -1.0
AGE GROUP- 16-20 30 h X
EDUC LEVEL 0-8 r
-1.0 “1,5 -20 -L5 -3.0 0 -0.5 -1.0
AGE GROUP- 16-20
EDUC LEVEL S-12
AGE GROUP 21-25
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
-1.5 -2.0 -2.5 -3.0
age GROUP 21-25
EDUC LEVEL 9-12
“1.5 “2.0 -2.5
AGE GROUP- 21-25
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
“1.5 “2.0 -25 -•
AGE GROUP -26-30
EDUC LEVEL 0-8
-15 “2 0 -2.5
AGE GROUP- 26-30
EDUC LEVEL 9-12
AGE GROUP. 26-30
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
Figure 140. Nocturnal emissions: individual variation in frequencies, in four
age groups, at three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has nocturnal emissions with
each type of frequency (horizontal line).
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
525
In younger generations of the social level that goes to college, the num-
ber of males having nocturnal emissions is almost identical with the number
involved (in the corresponding social level) twenty-two years ago (Chapter
11). On the other hand, in the grade school groups, the younger genera-
tions appear to have emissions at an earlier age, and more of them are
ultimately involved than was true in older generations. At all levels, how-
ever, the frequencies today are almost precisely what they were twenty-
two years ago. These data are important to note, even if their explanation
is not immediately apparent.
Nocturnal emissions occur with about the same incidences and fre-
quencies among rural and urban males (Chapter 12).
The incidences and frequencies of nocturnal emissions are almost ex-
actly the same among the active and inactive members of each religious
group (Chapter 13).
Among the several sources of sexual outlet, there is none that is less
significant than nocturnal emissions, unless it be intercourse with animals
of other species. Intercourse with prostitutes and the homosexual both
contribute more to the total sexual picture. There are some males who draw
the whole of their sexual outlet from nocturnal emissions, and this is true
of 8 per cent of the younger, adolescent boys, but it is not true of more than
5 per cent of the males at any later age. It is, in consequence, interesting to
find so much attention given to the significance of nocturnal emissions in
certain literature. This undoubtedly reflects a wish that involuntary emis-
sions were a more important part of the pre-marital outlet.
On the whole, the males who are most dependent upon nocturnal emis-
sions are those who are slow in developing physically, those who are slow
in their nervous reactions or unresponsive to the usual sexual stimuli, or
those who are timid and awkward in making social contacts. They are the
males who are most often restrained for moral reasons. There are some out-
standing exceptions to this, proving that a multiplicity of factors may be in-
volved in determining the frequencies of nocturnal emissions; but, by and
large, emissions are most often depended upon by the male who has not
made what the psychiatrist would call a good socio-sexual adjustment.
CONTENT OF NOCTURNAL SEX DREAMS
Considering the importance which Freud (1938, 1945) and others have
attached to the interpretation of dreams, and considering the considerable
literature which has in consequence developed on this subject (e.g., MoU
1899, Ellis 1936, Weiss and English 1943, Meyer in Lorand 1944), we will
attempt to add nothing at this time except certain factual data that have
been accumulated in the course of the present investigation.
526
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The parallel between the content of the nocturnal dream and one’s overt
daytime experience has been recognized by all peoples, primitive and civ-
ilized, since the dawn of history. The present study confirms the usual in-
terpretations, although it has nothing to contribute on the question of
symbolism in dreams. The dream is usually a reflection of the individual’s
overt experience or of his desire for experience. It often involves other per-
sons, usually persons who are obscure and unidentifiable. Sometimes the
actors are engaged in non-sexual daytime activities, more often they are
about to make sexual contacts, or to engage in actual coitus or other re-
lations. Sometimes the dreamer is a participant in the activities, and some-
times the dreamer does not participate but merely observes. The dream
situations are most often heterosexual when the overt experience or day-
time reactions of the individual are heterosexual, and the dreams are most
often homosexual when the overt experience of the individual is homo-
sexual. Persons who have both things in their histories have dreams that
are sometimes homosexual, sometimes heterosexual, and sometimes both
homosexual and heterosexual in the same event. In such cases, the pre-
dominance of heterosexual or homosexual dreams may reflect the indi-
vidual’s preference for one or the other sort of experience, but this is not
always so.
A number of males dream of females who have male genitalia, and this is
particularly interesting in the light of the fact that most of these males have
not heard of the classic Greek concept of the hermaphrodite (Licht 1925-
1928), nor are they acquainted with the psychoanalytic treatments of such
combinations of male and female characters. Sometimes dreams of her-
maphrodites occur among males who have had neither heterosexual nor
homosexual experience, and we are inclined to interpret them as primarily
heterosexual (as also in Nacke 1908, Ellis 1936). The maleness of the gen-
italia in the dream may depend upon the fact that an individual who has
not actually seen female genitalia may have some difficulty in imagining an
anatomy or a genital performance which is different from that which he
has experienced in his own person.
There are a few males who dream of masturbation, but this is not com-
mon. Boys who have had animal contacts, or thought about having them,
quite regularly dream of such experiences. There are occasional sadistic or
masochistic dreams which may reflect some phase of the thinking of the
individual, or of his actual experience.
Finally, it must be emphasized that there are some dreams which simply
do not correlate with any overt experience. Such dreams are not frequent,
but they do seem to occur, for they are sometimes reported under circum-
stances which make one feel that the record is thoroughly reliable. For in-
stance, a male who reports an extensive homosexual history would appear
to have little reason for distorting the fact when he says that all of his
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
527
dreams are heterosexual. He may emphasize that he wishes they were not
so, because he has no use for the heterosexual, and would enjoy the ex-
perience of having homosexual dreams. Explanations of such contra-
dictory dreams should be based on more detail than anyone seems yet to
have obtained. It is difficult to believe that suppressed desires are always
involved. It is not at all impossible that familiarity with the experiences of
other persons would be sufficient to generate a dream, even though it in-
cluded events which were totally distasteful to the individual and in which
he had no desire to participate.
Often the actual experience of orgasm is not realized in a dream. Even
when the subject wakes to find himself ejaculating, he may not have reached
the fulfillment of his activity in the dream itself. Most individuals wake up
when there is an orgasm, but there are some who continue to sleep through
it. Even in those cases, however, the dream may not include any realiza-
tion of the activity which produced the orgasm.
RELATION TO OTHER OUTLETS
By nearly all moral philosophies, nocturnal emissions provide the one
form of sexual outlet for which the individual is least responsible. Mas-
turbation, heterosexual petting or coitus, and homosexual and animal con-
tacts may all be penalized as the product of the individuaFs deliberate in-
tent and conscious performance. There is some contention that one should
control the frequencies of his emissions by controlhng his thoughts before
going to sleep (e.g,, W. S. Hall 1920, Lieber 1920, Amer. Soc. Hyg. Assoc.
1930, Kirsch 1930. See Ellis 1936, Vol. 1 (1):188 ff. for a history of the
Church’s attitudes). It is suggested that dreams may be controlled by regu-
lating the position in which one sleeps, or by choosing one’s night clothing
(e.g,, W. S. Hall 1907, Jefferis and Nichols 1921, Exner 1932, Kirkendall
1940). But the condemnation of nocturnal emissions has not been great.
They have been looked upon as involuntary and spontaneous releases of
pressure, and as a means of avoiding other sexual activities. Since there are
several biologic problems involved in these interpretations, a scientist is
justified in asking for objective data on the physiology of the several proc-
esses concerned, and on the relation between nocturnal emissions and the
frequencies of other sexual outlets.
On the physiologic origin of these emissions, the information is ex-
ceedingly scant, and investigations are much needed. Certainly no inter-
pretation is tenable which depends upon the idea that the testes are the
sources of the semen, and that they or other glands become so engorged
with accumulating secretions that involuntary ejaculation is the result. The
semen is chiefly composed of secretions from the seminal vesicles and the
prostate gland, and the testes contribute nothing but sperm which, of
course, constitute only the mo^ minute part of the semen (e.g,, Hotchkiss
18
528
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
1944). There is no evidence that the testes have any part in effecting erotic
arousal or ejaculation, except indirectly as they supply hormones which in-
fluence the male metabolism. If there are any pressures involved, they must
arise in the seminal vesicles or in the prostate gland; but data on this point
are lacking. It is more tenable to think of nervous tensions which are built
up until, periodically, they precipitate an orgasm; but again the physiology
is not understood. We are, in consequence, almost completely in the dark
as to the possibility of a biologic mechanism which could force nocturnal
emissions when other sexual outlets were insufflcient.
Neither are there objective data on the mechanical factors that may effect
nocturnal emissions. It has been known for some time that the nerve centers
that control ejaculation are in the lower spinal cord, and this has lent some
substantiation to the theory that sleeping on one’s back, especially if there
are pressures on the lower spine, may increase the frequencies of emissions;
but there seem to be no sound data to substantiate this. Genital stimulation
from tight clothing, more general stimulation from too warm a bed, or still
other conditions may have some effect; but such relationships are not yet
scientifically established.
It has frequently been said that persons who are celibate, or at least ab-
stinent before marriage, will find an increased outlet through involuntary
emissions, and that the emissions will provide a sufiicient release to keep
an individual physically and mentally balanced (e.g., W. S. Hall 1907, 1909,
Eddy 1928a, 1928b, Elliott and Bone 1929, Ruland and Rattler 1934,
Frank 1946). It would, in consequence, be of exceeding scientific impor-
tance to have histories from a sufficient sample of highly restrained indi-
viduals, particularly of those who are celibate. Without such data it is, of
course, impossible to depend upon general statements which have been
made on this point, especially when they come from persons who are in-
terested in defending moral or social philosophies.
It can, however, be noted again that the frequencies of emissions among
the religiously more devout males are neither higher nor lower than the
frequencies among the non-church-going males in the population (Chapter
13). The rates of masturbation, pre-marital intercourse, and the homosexual
are much reduced in the devout group and, in consequence, the total sexual
outlets are reduced; but this merely increases the percentage of the total
outlet which is derived from nocturnal emissions. Among these histories of
the religiously devout, the absolute frequencies of such emissions are not
altered by the abstinence.
Lacking a sufficient series of histories of celibates, the best data now
available on persons largely deprived of other outlets come from men who
have been confined to penal institutions and who are cut off from their out-
side sexual activities. Among such men there is a slightly higher frequency
of nocturnal emissions, but the increases are not great (Plattner 1930). Even
NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS
529
though there are some men who have their first emissions after entering an
institution, their subsequent experiences rarely occur more often than a few
times a year or, at most, once in a month or two.
While it is commonly believed that males in a prison find an abundant
release through the homosexual, and while it is in actuality a fact that a
high percentage of them do become involved in such activity after they
have been in a penal institution for some length of time, neither the homo-
sexual nor masturbation ever provides any frequent outlet for more than
a small proportion of a prison population. Many males do not begin their
homosexual activity for some years after entering an institution. Perhaps
half of the men in a short-time institution never do arrive at such activity
during the period of their stay. Consequently for a fair number of the in-
mates either nocturnal emissions provide the total outlet, or these men have
none at all. Considering that most prison inmates come from social levels
where the frequencies of marital intercourse often average six or seven
times a week, nocturnal emissions at the rate of three to six per year do not
provide much compensation.
There are some records of persons who report an increase in the fre-
quencies of nocturnal emissions when there has been a minimum of other
activity; but there are some who never have emissions unless they have en-
gaged in heterosexual petting or unless they have experienced orgasm in
heterosexual coitus or in homosexual relations during the preceding eve-
ning. In the latter instance, it would appear that the psychic stimulation re-
sulting from the overt contacts had been carried over into sleep. If there
are, in some cases, physiologic mechanisms which produce emissions when
there is an insufficiency of other outlets, there may be psychologic mech-
anisms which work in exactly the opposite way. In some individuals the
physiologic factors may predominate; in others, the psychologic factors
may be more significant. It is quite probable that in still other cases, still
other factors are involved.
There are individuals who have high rates of total outlet and who have
infrequent nocturnal emissions, or none at all; and there are individuals
with low rates of total outlet who similarly have infrequent emissions. On
the other hand, there are individuals of both high and low rates who have
an abundance of nocturnal emissions. The situation cannot be simply
summarized. When precise correlations are run they must not only relate
the emissions with the several other sources of outlet, but must also take in-
to account the nature of the socio-sexual contacts which each individual is
making, the significance of his personality, and those psychic capacities
which might influence his daytime imaginations and his nighttime dreaming.
Most boys have learned from current opinion and from printed Utera-
ture that nocturnal emissions are usual and normal sources of sexual out-
let (as in G. S. Hall 1904, Bigelow 1916, Liederman 1926, Exner 1932,
530
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Weatherhead 1932, Rice 1933, Dickerson 1933, Ellis 1936, Bruckner 1937,
U. S. Public Health Service 1937, Crisp 1939, Klemer 1939, Gruenberg and
Kaukonen 1940, Lovell 1940, Corner and Landis 1941, Kelly 1941, Sadler
and Sadler 1944, Boys Club Amer. 1946). Males of an older generation
more often worried over the emissions, and an occasional boy may still
become disturbed over the question of the frequency of his experience.
Writers who advise one who has “frequent” emissions to consult his phys-
ician or his confessor, do not help in allaying the boy’s fears. Authorities in
some schools, especially in some religious schools and in some penal insti-
tutions, may reprimand the individual who “allows” emissions to occur,
and there are records of at least two disciplinary schools where the boys
were punished for having nocturnal emissions.
There are some individuals who report some feeling of lassitude after
experiencing a nocturnal emission, but this is a possible outcome of any type
of sexual activity. It is the more usual experience that such emissions do not
have even this after-effect. As a matter of fact, nocturnal emissions are ac-
cepted by most of the boys of the present generation as a usual part of male
experience.
Chapter 16
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
During the past few decades, particularly at upper social levels, pre-
marital physical contacts between males and females have been consider-
ably elaborated without any increase in the frequency of actual intercourse
(Chapter 11). These contacts may go far beyond the hugging and kissing
which occurred in older generations. In their maximum extensions they
may involve all of the techniques of the pre-coital play in which sophisti-
cated married partners engage.
In general this behavior is known to the younger generation as petting,
although other terms are applied to certain types of contacts. Those which
are confined to latitudes not lower than the neck are sometimes known as
necking, and petting is distinguished from the heavy petting which involves
a deliberate stimulation of the female breast, or of the male or female gen-
itaha. While most of the younger generation of high school and college-
bred males and females more or less accepts petting as usual and proper in
pre-marital behavior, some of those who have doubts about the morahty
of their activities ease their consciences by avoiding the term petting for
anything except the more extended forms of contact.
In the present volume the term “petting” has been apphed to any sort of
physical contact which does not involve a union of genitalia but in which
there is a dehberate attempt to effect erotic arousal. Accidental touching is
not petting, even though it may bring an erotic response. Simple hp kissing
may or may not be petting, depending on the intent and earnestness of the
procedure. Petting is not always effective in achieving an arousal, but if
there has been a dehberate attempt it satisfies the definition. Soul kissing,
smooching, necking, mild petting, and heavy petting are basically one
thing, even though there may be differences in the limits to which the tech-
niques are carried. The extent of the petting is not necessarily related to the
degree of arousal. Relatively simple contacts — which in some cases may not
involve more than a touch or a kiss — may be as effective for certain indi-
viduals, under certain circumstances, as the most extreme genital manipula-
tions. If the erotic significance is being considered, a classification of petting
should be based on the degree of arousal and the success of the activity in
effecting orgasm, rather than upon the nature of the mechanics employed.
Obviously, the psychic components are, again (Chapter 15), more im-
portant than the physical in this sort of sexual activity.
531
532
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Until quite recently the deliberate elaboration of petting techniques has
been confined largely to pre-marital and marital relationships, and all of
the data which are given in the present chapter apply to the pre-marital
petting activities of single males. Within much more recent years there has
been an increasing tendency to accept petting as an extra-marital relation-
ship among persons who would not think of having extra-marital inter-
course, and who more or less persuade themselves that they are still faith-
ful to their spouses if they engage in nothing but petting with other part-
ners. At many an upper level social affair, at cocktail parties, at dances,
during automobile rides, after dinner parties, and on other occasions,
married males may engage in such flirtations and physical contacts with
other men’s wives, sometimes quite openly and often without being re-
strained by the presence of the other spouses. Unfortunately, the extent of
this extra-marital petting was not comprehended in the earlier years of the
present study, and we have not yet accumulated sufficient material for re-
porting on this aspect of human sexual behavior.
REFERENCES
Specific data on the incidences and frequencies of pre-marital hetero-
sexual petting have already been given in the following tables and charts,
and in earlier discussions in this volume, as follows :
PAGE
TABLE
HGURE
NATURE OF DATA
174
29
Continuity of pre-adolescent sex play
with adolescent activity
190-191
38
30
Sources of first ejaculation
234
49
144
Range of variation and age
244-249
277
53
38-43
Age and petting to climax
Petting as an activity of single males
300
68
Age at onset of adolescence and petting
345-347
84,96,110,115
100
Social level and petting
376-381
93-95
Attitudes toward petting in various social
levels
399,406-
412
102, 103, 105
117-118, 121
Older and younger generations and pet-
ting
453-454,
462
119
125
Rural and urban populations and petting
477-478
128
Religious backgrounds and petting
488-493
511-512
126, 128-130
Significance of petting as one source of
total outlet
Masturbation and pre-marital petting
533-535
134
141, 142
Accumulative incidence of total petting
experience
533-539
5, 135
10, 143
Accumulative incidence of petting to
climax
533-539
144
Individual variation in petting to climax
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
533
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
In pre-adolescence there is, in actuality, very little behavior which can
properly be classified as petting; but with the onset of adolescence the boy
increasingly realizes the significance of sexual arousal and, with the ex-
ample set by his older companions, he is likely to begin more specific
manipulation of the girls with whom he has social contact. Petting pro-
vides the first ejaculation for only one-third of one per cent of the boys at
the turn of adolescence, but by the age of 15 a number (8.4%) find a
specific sexual outlet in such activity. There is a steady increase in the
amount of petting that is done in the later teens.
On the exact incidences and frequencies of petting, few data have been
available (Hamilton 1929, Willoughby 1937, Bromley and Britten 1938,
Wile 1941, Ramsey 1943, Seward 1946). The histories in the present study
show that about 88 per cent of the total male population has engaged in
some sort of petting, or (in the case of the younger males) will engage in at
least some petting prior to marriage (Table 134, Figure 141). The activity
is extensive enough to result in orgasm for the males in over a quarter
(28%) of this population prior to the time of marriage. However, since
petting is more extensive in the present generation than it was in the older
generation, the more significant accumulative incidence calculations on
males of the college level show over 85 per cent of the younger groups with
some petting experience, and something over 50 per cent of the younger
males petting to climax prior to marriage (Table 135, Figure 143).
Something between 18 and 32 per cent of the younger population may be
involved in petting which leads to climax in each age period prior to mar-
riage (Table 53, Figure 40). The highest active incidence occurs between
the ages of 16 and 20. At that time, about a third of the males are securing
a portion of their outlet through petting.
Among those who engage in petting, the frequencies vary considerably
(Figure 144), There are males who have petting experiences practically
every night in the week and on other occasions in the day. The most ac-
tive male in the series averaged orgasm about 7 times per week throughout
the five-year period between 21 and 25. There are, of course, males who go
for weeks and months without dating girls with whom they may engage in
petting, and there are some males who may have lapses of a year or two or
more between such dates. There are some males who have petting experi-
ence with dozens or even hundreds of girls prior to marriage, and there are
a few males who have such experience with only two or three girls, and
sometimes with no more than the one whom they subsequently marry.
These are tremendous differences to be found in any sort of behavior; and
since the social significance of petting is much greater than the social sig-
nificance of masturbation or of some other types of sexual activity, one
534
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Petting Experience: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
TOTAL
POPULATION
U. S.
CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC.
9-
LEVEL
■12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
3989
0.0
682
0.0
493
0.0
2814
0.0
9
3989
0.0
682
0.0
493
0.0
2814
0.0
10
3989
' 0.2
682
0.1
493
0.2
2814
0.3
11
3988
1.8
681
1.2
493
2.2
2814
1.4
12
3988
7.7
681
6.9
493
8.7
2814
5.8
13
3987
21.4
680
18.7
493
24.1
2814
17.0
14
3984
43.2
677
35.5
493
50.0
2814
33.7
15
3977
57.0
670
51.2
493
62.9
2814
47.2
16
3952
71.3
651
64.5
488
77.0
2813
64.2
17
3882
79.1
607
71.7
466
84.3
2809
75.3
18
3704
83.7
559
77.5
414
87.4
2731
82.9
19
3413
85.9
500
79.6
351
88.9
2562
87.7
20
3026
87.0
437
80.5
284
89.8
2305
89.9
21
2592
87,9
384
81.8
231
90.5 i
1977
90.6
22
2074
88.4
309
81.6
186
91.4 ^
1579
91.1
23
1658
89.0
256
80.9
155
92.9
1247
91.2
24
1313
88.6
223
82.5 1
125
91.2
965
91.7
25
1057
88.7
188
83.5 1
110
91.8
759
92.4
26
857
88.5
164
82.3
92
92.4
601
92.5
27
659
88.3
149
81.9
80
92.5
430
91.2
28
528
90.3
131
82.4
69
97.1
328
89.3
29
432
89.8
113
81.4
60
96.7
259
89.6
30
351
88.5
100
82.0
50
96.0
201
89.1
31
282
88.0
83
81.9
155
87.1
32
242
86.8
77
80.5
127
85.0
33
212
86.4
68
77.9
110
84.5
34
180
86.1
64
78.1
87
82.8
35
155
84.9
59
79.7
73
80.8
36
140
85.0
58
81.0
63
77.8
37
121
84.7
52
80.8
53
79.2
38
114
86.2
50
84.0
51
80.4
Table 134. Accumulative incidence data on total petting experience
Covering pre-marital activity, whether with or without orgasm. In three educational
levels and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
535
Figure 141. Pre-marital petting experience (of any kind), and petting to cHmax:
accumulative incidence among single males
Showing percent of the single males that has ever had petting experience by each of
the indicated ages. Based on pre-marital histories of population corrected for U. S.
Census distribution.
Figure 142. Pre-marital petting experience of any kind: accumulative incidence
in three educational levels *
Showing percent of each population that has had any kind of petting experience by
each of the indicated ages. All data based on unmarried males.
536
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Petting to Climax: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
TOTAL
POPULATION
u. s.
CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC.
9-
LEVEL
-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
%with
Cases
%with
Cases
% with
Cases
% with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
8
2304
0.0
419
0,0
289
0.0
1596
0.0
9
2304
0.0
419
0.0
289
0.0
1596
0.0
10
2304
0.0
419
0.0
289
0.0
1596
0.0
11
2304
0.2
419
0.2
289
0.3
1596
0.0
12
2304
1.0
419
1.4
289
1.0
1596
0.3
13
2303
2.0
418
2.6
289
1.7
1596
1.6
14
2301
5.1
416
5.3
289
5.2
1596
4.1
15
2295
8.4
410
8.8
289
8.3
1596
7.6
16
2271
12.8
392
10.5
283
13.4
1596
15.5
17
2213
17,9
356
12.1
264
19.7
1593
23.0
18
2097
21.3
322
14.6
241
22.4
1534
31.2
19
1969
22.6
285
14.7
210
22.9
1474
38.4
20
1816
23.6
249
14.1
178
23.0
1389
46.0
21
1616
24.0
220
12.3
156
23.7
1240
50.1
22
1347
23.7
174
11.5
126
23.0
1047
52.8
23
1123
23.1
139
11.5
112
21.4
872
54.6
24
903
25.8
121
14.0
94
24.5
688
56.3
25
729
27.9
103
16.5
83
27.7
543
58.2
26
595
28.5
84
13.1
74
31.1
437
60.6
27
465
30.8
75
16.0
69
34.8
321
56.7
28
382
31.1
66
15.2
61
36.1
255
56.5
29
315
29.9
59
15.3
52
32.7
204
59.3
30
254
26.9
55
14.5
161
61.5
31
206
25.6
122
60.7
32
178
23.1
100
57.0
33
154
23.4
89
56.2
34
132
24.9
72
55.6
35
115
20.3
61
55.7
36
105
19.4
54
51.9
Table 135. Accumulative incidence data on petting to climax
Covering pre-marital petting experience which leads to orgasm without coitus. In
three educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census of
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING 537
who attempts to understand human society must allow for wide variations
between males on this point.
Petting is pre-eminently an activity of youth of the high school and col-
lege levels. In both of these groups about 92 per cent of all the males are
involved before marriage (Table 135, Figure 142), and the figure is still
higher for the younger generations. It is only a slightly smaller number
(84%) of the males of the grade school level which has experience of the
sort, but this level is restricted in the nature of its activity. Such petting as
does occur in the grade school group is often incidental, confined to a few
minutes of hugging and kissing prior to actual coitus, and quite without
the elaborations which are usual among college students. Petting at upper
social levels may be indefinitely prolonged, even into hours of intensive
Figure 143. Pre-marital petting to climax: accumulative incidence in three
educational levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever engaged in pre-marital petting to
the point of climax, at each of the indicated ages. All data based on unmarried males.
erotic play, and usually never arrives at coitus. Orgasm as a product of
petting occurs among 16 per cent of the males of the grade school level, 32
per cent of the males of the high school level, and over 61 per cent of the
coUege-bred males who are not married by the age of 30. The social issues
involved in petting are, therefore, matters that chiefly concern the high
school and college groups.
Thirty years ago, petting involved fewer persons and was a less highly
elaborated activity than it often is today. In regard to most other types of
sexual activity, the behavior of the older generations (during their youth)
was so nearly identical with the behavior of the present-day youth that no
significant differences are shown in statistical analyses of the data obtained
from the two groups (Chapter 1 1). The records for petting, however, show
m
J5 f,* 0*86.7%
to
5
10
ts
to
5
0
%i
20 j
ts
10
5
%
15
10
5
0
0*80.5%
0*862%
-OS
0 - 0.5
0 = 54.2%
AGE GROUP-AOOL-IS
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
-1.5
AGE GROUP -ADOL- 15
EDUC LEVEL 9>I2
AGE GROUP* ADOL- 15
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-25
AGE GROUP- 16-20
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
0 -O.S
0 = 65.7%
- 1.0
AGE GROUP ♦ 16-20
EDUC LEVEL 9-12
AGE GROUP -16-20
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-05 -to -15 -20
FREQUENCY PER WEEK
= 84.5
-2,5.
AGE GROUP - 21-25
EDUC LEVEL 0*8
-0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0
= 71.5%
-2.5
AGE GROUP - 21-25
EOUC LEVEL 9-12
-2.5
t
"O
30
25 -
20 -
15 -
10-
5 t—
-0.5
= 48.1%
-2.5
AGE GROUP- 21-25
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-2.5
-0.5 -1.0 -l.S -2.0
= 80.5%
AGE GROUP- 26-30
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
-2.5
AGE GROUP -26-30
EDUC LEVEL 9-12
-2.5
20 -
15 ~
10 -
5 *
qLl
AGE GROUP - 26-30
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-0.5 -1.0 -1.5 -2.0
FREQUENCY PER WEEK
-25
Figure 144. Pre-maritai petting to climax: individual variation in frequencies,
in four age groups, at three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which engages in pre-marital pet-
ting to the point of climax, with each type of frequency (horizontal line). Based on un-
married males.
538
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
539
actual differences between the generations (Table 102, Figures 117, 118,
121). Even at the college level petting has increased within these thirty
years. In the older generation of this group, about 87 per cent of the males
were involved ; nearly 95 per cent has such experience today. Moreover, the
younger generation of college males is starting its petting activity at an
earlier age. Among those males who never go beyond grade school, only
78 per cent of the older generation had any petting experience, in contrast
to 94 per cent in the present day.
The frequencies of petting activities reach their height between the ages
of 21 and 25 (Table 53, Figures 38, 41). Calculating averages for the
total population, including both those who do and those who do not
engage in petting, the mean frequency of orgasm from this source, be-
tween 21 and 25, is about once in six weeks. For those males who are
actually reaching orgasm, the average frequencies are something more than
once in three weeks. It is, of course, only a small part of the petting which
actually reaches climax, and the frequencies of petting without climax are
many times higher than the frequencies of petting to climax. Males who
remain unmarried into still older age periods pet to climax less frequently,
partly because they carry more of their heterosexual contacts through to
coitus, partly because some of them are sexually apathetic, and partly be-
cause some of them have homosexual histories.
Petting never accounts for more than 3 per cent of the total outlet for
any segment of the total male population (Table 53, Figures 39, 42). This
is in the age period between 21 and 25. Considering only those who do
reach orgasm in petting (the active population), about 6 per cent of the
total outlet is derived from this source during the late teens. While the
incidence and frequency figures in the total population drop in later
years, the frequencies for those who go as far as orgasm gradually increase.
In this active population, among those males who are still unmarried in
their thirties, as much as 10 per cent of the outlet is derived from petting.
Petting provides somewhat fewer orgasms than nocturnal emissions, and
only animal intercourse is less important as a source of outlet. The real im-
portance of petting, however, lies in the education it provides in making
socio-sexual contacts. On this score, pre-marital petting is one of the most
significant factors in the sexual lives of high school and college males and
females.
Among all urban groups, of all educational levels, petting to climax oc-
curs 2 to 3 times as often as it does among rural boys of the same levels
(Table 119). This is one of the most marked distinctions between rural and
urban populations. These differences are more marked than the differences
between the social levels within each area.
540
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN tHE HUMAN MALE
While there has been a fair amount of moral objection to petting, it has
already been shown (Chapter 13) that religiously devout males are involved
as often as those who are religiously inactive. The differences in patterns of
petting in the several social levels outweigh any religious influences within
any single social level.
TECHNIQUES IN PETTING
Petting techniques may include all the conceivable forms of physical
contact between two individuals of the opposite sex, except that they do
not include the actual union of genitalia. Petting usually starts with general
body contacts, and with kissing. While kissing under any circumstances is
more or less taboo for some individuals of the lower social levels (Chapter
10), it is the most widely distributed form of contact among males and fe-
males of the high school and college levels. In these groups it may occur
among casual acquaintances who are having their first date. So common is
kissing at this level that it has relatively little sexual significance unless it
becomes specifically elaborated. Simple hp kissing may be extended into a
deep kiss (a French kiss or soul kiss, in the college parlance) which may in-
volve more or less extensive tongue contacts, contacts of the inner lips, and
a considerable stimulation of the interior of the mouth by the other indi-
vidual’s tongue. From the reptiles, down through the birds and the mam-
mals, such tongue and mouth contacts are common concomitants of other
sexual activities (Beach 1947). For the other vertebrates, tongue contacts
are definitely erotic, and they are naturally so for the human animal that is
not too inhibited by its esthetic and cultural backgrounds. Deep kissing
may effect orgasm, even though no other physical contacts are involved.
Petting techniques usually expand in a more or less standard sequence,
as the partners become better acquainted. Beginning with general body
contact, lip kissing, and the deep kiss, it advances to a deliberate manipula-
tion of the female breast, to mouth contacts with the female breast, to
manual stimulation of the female genitalia, less often to the manual stimu-
lation of the male genitalia, to the apposition of naked genitalia, to oral
stimulation of the male genitalia, and finally to oral stimulation of the fe-
male genitalia (Tables 93, 94). Petting techniques at the grade school level
rarely go beyond incidental breast and genital contacts ; but a goodly por-
tion of the petting at high school and college levels does arrive at more spe-
cific genital manipulation. A great many engaged couples go that far before
they marry. It is a smaller portion of the population which includes mouth-
genital contacts in its pre-marital history (Table 94).
Most of the action in a petting relationship originates with the male.
Most of it is designed to stimulate the female. It is doubtful if a sufficient
biologic basis could be shown for such a one-sided performance, and it may
be that this great difference in the activity of the male and the female is, at
least in part, another outcome of the patterns by which females are raised
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
541
in our culture. The male in the petting relationship derives his stimulation
through his own activity in contact with the female, and this is often suffi-
cient, as already indicated, to lead to spontaneous ejaculation.
The astonishment of the lower level at the petting behavior of the better
educated groups has been recorded in Chapter 10. As there noted, petting
is the particular activity which has led many persons to conclude that col-
lege students are sexually wild and perverted. On the other hand, the college
level disapproves of the heterosexual intercourse which the lower level has,
in some abundance, before marriage. The conflict is obviously one between
two systems of mores, between two cultural patterns, only one of which
seems right to a person who accepts the traditions of the group in which
he has been raised. With the better educated groups, intercourse versus
petting is a question of morals. For the lower level, it is a problem of un-
derstandmg how a mentally normal individual can engage in such highly
erotic activity as petting and still refrain from actual intercourse.
There is some indication that younger generations have become freer in
making these contacts. They also seem to be becoming freer in petting in
public places. On doorsteps and on street corners, and on high school and
college campuses, general body contacts and more specific hugging and
kissing may be observed in the daytime as well as in the evening hours.
Similar contacts may be observed in automobiles, on double dates, at cock-
tail parties, at parties of other sorts, in taverns and in restaurants, in drug
stores and inns, in reception rooms in college dormitories, in high school
corridors, in the homes of many of the students, and wherever else young
people congregate. More specific contacts may call for more privacy. On
occasion, some nudity may be involved, and there are a few records of
males who sleep nude with partners with whom they become involved in
intensive petting, while never having genital intercourse. Sometimes naked
genitalia are placed in apposition, again without effecting coitus.
To some extent, petting is the outcome of the upper level’s attempt to
avoid pre-marital intercourse. The condemnation of petting on the ground
that it may lead to something that is worse is quite unfounded, for there is
no evidence that the frequency of pre-marital intercourse has increased
during recent generations (Chapter 11), even though petting has increased.
In a number of cases, the specific record indicates that there would have
been intercourse if petting had not supplied an outlet.
The physical outcome of petting has been a matter of some concern to
educators, to parents, and to high school and college students themselves
(as in Elliott and Bone 1929, Butterfield 1939, Rice 1946, Frank 1946).
There is probably no sex question which is asked more often by the younger
generation than this one concerning the physical outcome of their petting
behavior. Consequently, it has been important to secure data on this point.
The evidence is now clear that such arousal as petting provides may seri-
542
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
ously disturb some individuals, leaving them in a more or less extended
nervous state unless the activity has proceeded to the point of orgasm. If
orgasm results, there seem to be no after-effects other than those which fol-
low any other type of sexual activity. On the other hand, there is a portion
of the males, perhaps as many as a third of those in the present sample, who
may become involved in extensive petting which stops short of orgasm, and
who are able to calm down without the specific release that sexual climax
would provide. Many males who do not reach orgasm while in contact with
the female resort to masturbation soon after they leave the girl. Pain which
is ordinarily said to occur in the testes or in the groin (but which probably
involves some other structures instead) is not uncommonly experienced by
the male who fails to reach climax during the petting. It occasionally hap-
pens that a male who has gone through a prolonged period of arousal, ex-
tending perhaps for an hour or more, finds difficulty in achieving orgasm
or, if that point is finally reached, may find that there is an insufficient
nervous release, or that there is some localized pain following ejaculation.
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF PETTING
Throughout the animal kingdom, and to some extent in the plant king-
dom as well, it is normal for an organism to respond to physical contact by
pressing against the stimulating object. Unless high temperatures are in-
volved, or pain is adduced by some other quality of the situation, pressure
by an object normally leads the animal or some part of its body to move
toward that object. The human babe so responds from the time of birth,
and it soon learns that such responses are rewarded by the warmth of a
contact with another human body, by additional satisfaction which it may
receive from the petting and cuddling which its mother or others may give
it, sometimes by food, and sometimes by protection from unpleasant situ-
ations. These early contacts bring such arousal as would be called erotic
in an adult, and which are undoubtedly so in the younger animal (Chap-
ter 5).
Throughout the first years of its life, most parents provide a considerable
amount of stimulation for the child, and aid and abet the development of its
emotional responses. To love a babe and to teach it to love in return is an
accepted part of the mores. But as the child grows still older, most parents
in our English-American culture begin to restrain its physical contacts,
whether with themselves or with other persons. The small girl is taught
that she should not allow contacts if they come from persons who are not
relatives and, in particular, that she should avoid contacts with males. The
boy learns that he is not supposed to touch girls, at least ‘‘until he gets
older.” Any show of affection is deliberately controlled, and the growing
boy is taught not to expect mothering or much sympathy when he faces
difficult situations. As some of the psychiatrists (e,g., English and Pearson
1945) have pointed out, the child is brought into a world that is filled with
HETEROSEXUAL PETTING
543
affection and physical love; but as it grows up it is taught to resist its bio-
logically normal responses and to pull away when it is touched by any
other person. After fifteen or twenty years of such training, a marriage
ceremony is supposed to correct all of the negative responses which have
been drilled into the boy or girl, and in their marital relations they are sup-
posed to become as natural and unrestrained as when they were babes.
This, of course, is just too much to expect, and it is not surprising that a
considerable portion of the best drilled persons in the population (males
and females of the college level) is awkward and ineffective in developing
affectional relations after marriage.
The female is, on the average, slower in developing sexually, and less re-
sponsive than the male. She is, in consequence, more easily affected by this
training in the niceties of restraint. It is, therefore, not surprising to find
sexually unresponsive wives in a startUngly high proportion of the mar-
riages, especially in the better educated segments of the population.
Within recent years, younger generations have come to realize something
of the significance of pre-marital restraint. Although there is, of course, no
doubt that many of the boys and girls who engage in petting do so for the
sake of the immediate satisfaction to be obtained, a surprising number of
them have consciously considered the relation of such experience to their
subsequent marital adjustments. Their understanding of the situation has
been helped by the numerous marriage manuals that have been published
within the last twenty years, and by courses in psychology, home econom-
ics, marriage, and child development, and in other fields of the social
sciences. This explains, at least in part, why this younger generation has
been more or less obhvious to the not inconsiderable criticisms made by
older persons about its petting behavior (Jefferis and Nichols 1912, For-
bush 1919, Liederman 1926, Meyer 1927, 1929, 1934, 1935, Eddy 1928a,
1928b, Elliott and Bone 1929, Kirsch 1930, Weatherhead 1932, Edson 1936,
Bruckner 1937, Dickerson 1937, Clarke 1938, A Catholic Woman Doctor
1939, Kirkendall 1940, Kelly 1941, Bowman 1942, Moffett 1942, Morgan
1943, Moore 1943, Popenoe 1943, Sadler and Sadler 1944, Fleege 1945,
Griffin 1945, 1946, Davis 1946, Rice 1946, Boys Club Amer. 1946, Tanner
1946, A Redemptorist Father 1946, H. Frank 1946, R. Frank 1946,
McGill 1946a, 1946b, Gartland 1946).
It is amazing to observe the mixture of scientifically supported logic, and
of qtter illogic, which shapes the petting behavior of most of these youths.
That some of them are in some psychic conflict over their activities is evi-
denced by the curious rationalizations which they use to satisfy their con-
sciences. They are particularly concerned with the avoidance of genital
union. The fact that petting involves erotic contacts which are as effective
as genital union, and that it may even involve contacts which have been
more taboo than genital union, including some that have been considered
544
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
perversions, does not disturb the youth so much as actual intercourse
would. By petting, they preserve their virginities, even though they may
achieve orgasm while doing so. They still value virginity, much as the pre-
vious generations valued it. Only the list of most other activities has had
new values placed on it.
The younger generation considers that its type of behavior is more nat-
ural than the restrained courting of the Victorian generations. It sees logic
in the Freudian interpretations of the outcome of such restraint on the total
personality of an individual. And it is impressed by the evidence which
marriage counselors and psychiatrists have that the long periods of pre-
marital restraint are the source of some of the difficulties which many per-
sons find in making sexual adjustments in marriage.
While our data on the sexual factor in marital adjustment must be pre-
sented in a later volume, it may now be stated that there are always many
factors which are involved in the success or failure of a marriage. It is usu-
ally difficult to understand which factors came first in the chain of events,
and the persons immediately concerned in any discord are often the ones
least capable of understanding the sources of the difficulties in which they
find themselves. Sexual adjustments are not the only problems involved in
marriage, and often they are not even the most important factors in marital
adjustments, A preliminary examination of the six thousand marital his-
tories in the present study, and of nearly three thousand divorce histories,
suggests that there may be nothing more important in a marriage than a
determination that it shall persist. With such a determination, individuals
force themselves to adjust and to accept situations which would seem suffi-
cient grounds for a break-up, if the continuation of the marriage were not
the prime objective.
Nevertheless, sexual maladjustments contribute in perhaps three-
quarters of the upper level marriages that end in separation or divorce, and
in some smaller percentage of the lower level marriages that break up.
Where the sexual adjustments are poor, marriages are maintained with
difficulty. It takes a considerable amount of idealism and determination to
keep a marriage together when the sexual adjustments are not right. Sexual
factors are, in consequence, very important in a marriage.
Specifically, the sexual factors which most often cause difficulty in the
upper level marriages are (1) the failure of the male to show skill in sexual
ap|)roach and technique, and (2) the failure of the female to participate
with the abandon which is necessary for the successful consummation of
any sexual relation. Both of these difficulties stem from the same source,
namely, the restraints which are developed in pre-marital years, and the
impossibihty of freely releasing those restraints after marriage. On this
point Freud, the psychoanalysts, and the psychiatrists in general are largely
agreed. On this point, our own data provide abundant evidence. The de-
HETEROSEXUAL RETTING
545
tails of the several thousand marital histories that substantiate this con-
clusion must be given later, but the matter needs to be brought up at this
time because of its bearing on the significance of pre-marital petting.
The male’s difficulties in his sexual relations after marriage include a lack
of facility, of ease, or of suavity in establishing rapport in a sexual situa-
tion. Marriage manuals are mistaken in considering that the masculine
failure lies in an insufficient knowledge of techniques. Details of techniques
come spontaneously enough when the male is at ease in his own mind
about the propriety of his sexual behavior. But as an educated youth he
has acquired ideas concerning esthetic acceptability, about the scientific
interpretations of actions as clean or hygienic, about techniques that should
be effective, mechanically, when he has intercourse. He has decided that
there are sexual activities which are right and sexual activities which are
wrong, or at least indecent — perhaps abnormal and perverted. Even though
these things may not be consciously considered at the moment of inter-
course, they are part of the subconscious which controls his performance.
Few males achieve any real freedom in their sexual relations even with their
wives. Few males realize how badly inhibited they are on these matters. In
extreme cases these inhibitions may result in impotence for the male; and
most instances of impotence (prior to old age, and outside of those few
cases where there is physical damage to the genitalia) are to be found
among upper level, educated males. The psychiatrist well understands that
such impotence is the product of inhibitions. The hesitancy of the inhibited
male even to try to secure coitus is reflected in the fact that marital coitus
in the more religiously inclined males (Chapter 13) and among upper level
males in general (Chapter 10) occurs with significantly lower frequencies
than marital coitus in the lower educational levels.
The inhibitions of the upper level female are more extreme than those of
the average male. There are some of these females who object to all inter-
course with their newly married husbands, and a larger number of the
wives who remain uninterested in intercourse through the years of their
marriage, who object to each new technique which the male tries, who
charge their husbands with being lewd, lascivious, lacking in consideration,
and guilty of sex perversion in general. There are numerous divorces which
turn on the wife’s refusal to accept some item in coital technique which may
in actuahty be commonplace in human behavior. The female who has hved
for twenty or more years without learning that any ethically or socially de-
cent male has ever touched a female breast, and the female who has no
comprehension of the fact that sexual contacts may involve a great deal
more than genital union, find it difficult to give up their ideas about the
right and wrong of these matters and accept sexual relations with any
abandon after marriage. The girl who, as a result of pre-marital petting re-
lations, has learned something about the significance of tactile stimulation
546
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
and response, has less of a problem in resolving her inhibitions after mar-
riage.
There is, then, considerable evidence that pre-marital petting experience
contributes definitely to the elfectiveness of the sexual relations after
marriage. The correlations will be given in a later volume. Some of those
who have not had pre-marital petting experience do make satisfactory
marital adjustments, but in many cases they make poorer adjustments.
Although this conclusion is contrary to the usual statements in the sex
education literature {e,g., Dickerson 1930, 1937, 1944, Popenoe 1938), it is
in line with Terman’s findings (Terman 1938), and there have been some
others (e.g.. Rice 1933, 1946, Taylor 1933, Himes 1940, Laton and Bailey
1940, Corner and Landis 1941, English and Pearson 1945, Adams 1946)
who have arrived at more or less the same conclusion. Whether pre-marital
petting is right or wrong is, of course, a moral issue which a scientist has
no capacity to decide. What the relations of pre-marital petting may be to
a subsequent marital adjustment, is a matter that the scientist can measure.
Chapter 17
PRE-MARTTAL INTERCOURSE
Throughout history, in all cultures, primitive, classic, and modern, the
matter of non-marital intercourse has been one of social concern; but in
nearly all cultures extra-marital intercourse has been considered more im-
portant than pre-marital intercourse. In the ancient Hittite, Assyrian, and
Babylonian codes (Harper 1904, Barton 1925), the issue was more often
one of property rights, rather than one of ethics or morals. The married
male’s ownership of his wife and his rights to all of the privileges that she
could grant, were the primary concern. In most of the codes, pre-marital
intercourse was rarely mentioned, unless it occurred after the time of
betrothal. Then the first property rights emerged, there were laws against
the infringement of those rights by another male, and considerable atten-
tion was given to the nature of those rights when an engagement was
broken. In all history there are few instances of such concern over pre-
marital intercourse as exists in the Jewish and Anglo-American codes.
There is an almost universal acceptance of pre-marital intercourse
among so-called primitive peoples today, throughout the world (e.g,,
Ratzel 1896, Malinowski 1929, Thurnwald 1931, Wissler 1922, Fortune
1932, Murdock 1934, Blackwood 1935, Linton 1936, Landes 1938, Mead
1939, Reichard 1938, Schapera 1941, Chappie and Coon 1942, Bryk 1944,
Ford 1945, Fehlinger 1945). Sometimes the pre-marital activity has cer-
tain restrictions put on it, often it is accepted quite without reservation.
In only a few instances is there any outright condemnation of the in-
tercourse (Murdock 1934, Mead 1939, Fehlinger 1945, Ford 1945, Morley
1946).
Pre-marital relations have also been more or less openly accepted in
most of the other civilizations of the world, in the Orient, in the Ancient
World, and among most European groups apart from the Anglo-American
stocks.
It would be significant to examine the origins of our current attitudes on
coitus before marriage. Explanations of the codes as products of experience,
as instruments designed to protect children born out of wedlock, and as de-
vices for protecting the institution of marriage cannot represent the whole
of the history. Part of it must stem from the tremendous importance which
is attached in Jewish codes to the virginity of the female at the time of
marriage.
547
548
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Even among the Jews, however, the virginity of the male was a matter of
less concern, and most of the Continental European codes are closer to the
Talmud than they are to Anglo-American attitudes in this respect. Certain
it is that in our own culture, today, there is a considerable group of de-
voutly religious persons who consider the pre-marital loss of virginity as a
cardinal sin for the male, as well as for the female.
In the case of the female, the unbroken hymen was depended upon in the
Jewish code and subsequently among many European peoples as evidence
of virginity at marriage, and marriage ceremonies in many Eastern Euro-
pean and other groups still require the demonstration of such virginity for
the sake of the public record. First generation immigrants in some parts of
this country today may still send the blood-stained napkin back to relatives
in Europe, as evidence of the vahd consummation of the marriage. Among
present-day youth in our own culture, an individual may still be rated as a
virgin, even though there have been other sorts of sexual relations, such as
petting and all types of manual and oral contacts, as long as they do not
involve intercourse which breaks the hymen (Chapter 16).
Scientifically, popularly, and legally, the term ‘‘sexual intercourse” re-
fers to genital union, and it is in that sense that the term is used here.
The present chapter summarizes the data on the occurrence of all types
of pre-marital intercourse, whether it is had with companions or with pros-
titutes. A later chapter (Chapter 20) is concerned with the record on that
part of the intercourse which is had with prostitutes.
REFERENCES
Data on the occurrence of pre-marital intercourse, and on the factors
affecting the incidence and frequencies of pre-marital intercourse, have al-
ready been presented in this volume in tables and charts, and in discussions
in the text, as follows :
PAGE TABLE FIGURE NATURE OF DATA
116-118
12
14
162-174
24 , 25 , 27-29
25 , 26
190-191
38 , 68
30
234
49
248 - 253 ,
54 , 63 - 65 ,
71 - 76 , 65-82
277-288
77-82
312-315
68 , 74 , 75
91
347-355
85 - 87 , 96 ,
111 , 113 , 115
101 - 102 , 145, 146
364
92
Accumulative incidence data: intercourse
with prostitutes
Pre-adolescent sex play
Sources of first ejaculation
Range of variation and pre-marital inter-
course
Age and pre-marital intercourse
Age at onset of adolescence and pre-
marital intercourse
Social level and pre-marital intercourse
Attitudes on pre-marital intercourse at
different social levels
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE 549
PAGE
TABLE
FIGURE
376-383
106
396-413
99-101,
104, 105
110,111,116,122
455-458,
120, 121
125
462
477^81
129
488-^93
126-130
512
549-552
136, 138
145-146
552-555
147-148, 155
NATURE OF DATA
Pre-marital intercourse in patterns of
sexual behavior
Comparisons of two generations in pre-
marital intercourse
Rural-urban backgrounds and pre-mar-
ital intercourse
Religious backgrounds and pre-marital
intercourse
Significance of pre-marital intercourse as
one source of total outlet
Relation of masturbation to pre-marital
intercourse
Accumulative incidence data on pre-
marital intercourse
Individual variation in pre-marital inter-
course
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
In all other anthropoids effective coitus develops out of pre-adolescent
attempts at heterosexual relations and begins as soon as the animal is
physically capable and psychically oriented toward socio-sexual contacts.
While there are families of a sort among anthropoids in the wild, where the
male’s right to his females may be defended against outsiders, there is, of
course, nothing to demark pre-marital from marital chapters in the coital
history. Among some of the most poorly educated groups in our own cul-
ture the distinctions between pre-marital and marital experience are hardly
greater than those among the sub-human anthropoids; and there is no
doubt that all males in an uninhibited society would have pre-adolescent
and adolescent intercourse before marriage if there were no social re-
straints to prevent them. The only conceivable exceptions would be found
among those few individuals who were either physically incapable or
physically so weak that they could not assert themselves against competing
males.
It is, in consequence, not surprising to find that most human males do
have intercourse prior to marriage. Twenty-two per cent of all the pre-
adolescents attempt coitus, chiefly between age ten and adolescence
(Table 27, Chapter 5). Having once begun, the childhood activity carries
over into adolescence in more than half of all the cases — among three-
quarters of all the boys of the lower educational levels (Table 29). Hetero-
sexual coitus provides the first ejaculation for an eighth (12.5%) of all the
boys (Table 38), for a higher percentage (18.5%) of the boys who will not
go beyond grade school, and for a much lower percentage (1.4%) of those
who will ultimately go to college.
The accumulative incidence figures for pre-marital intercourse vary con-
siderably for difierent social levels (Figure 146). Among the males who go
550
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Pre-marital Intercourse: Accumulati\t Incidence
AGE
1
total
POPULATION
U. S.
CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC.
9-
LEVEL
■12
EDUC. LEVEL
13-}-
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
%with 1
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
3994
0.0
683
0.0
494
0.0
2817
0.0
9
3994
0.0
683
0.0
494
0.0
2817
0.0
10
3994
0.0
683
0.1
494
0.0
2817 i
0.0
11
3993
1.0
682
1.3
494
1.0
2817 1
0.2
12
3993
4.9
682
6.5
494
5.1
2817
1.0
13
3992
13.8
681
14.5
494
16.2
2817
3,1
14
3989
27.8
678
28.0
494
33.4
2817
6.0
15
3982
38.8
671
42.2
494
44.7
2817
9.5
16
3957
51.6
652
56.9
489
58.1
2816
15.5
17
3887
61.3
608
66.8
467
68.3
2812 !
23.1
18
3709
68,2
560
76.1
415
73.7
2734 i
30.8
19
3418
71.5
501
80.0
352
75.6
2565
38.0
20
3031
73.1
438
82.9
285 :
75.1
2308
44.4
21
2597
74.9
385
83.6
232
76.7
1980
49.1
22
2078
76.6
310
83.5
187
78.6
1581
54.1
23
1662
78.7
257
85.2 !
156
80.8
1249
56.9
24
1317
80.2
224
87.1
126
81.7
' 967
59.3
25
1061
83.3
189
89.9
111
83.8
761
64.4
26
861
83.1
165
91.5
93
81.7
603
65.2
27
663
84.3
150
92.0
81
84.0
432
65.0
28
530
86.1 1
131
93.9
70
85.7
329
66.6
29
434
85.5 1
113
92.9
61
85.2
260
67.3
30
353
86.4
100
94.0
51
84.3
202
67.8
31
283
86.4
83
94.0
155
67.1
32
243
86.6
77
94.8
127
65.4
33
213
85.4
68
94.1
no
64.5
34
181
85.3
64
95.3
87
67.8
35
156
87.5
59
94.9
73
65.8
36
140
89.4
58
98.3
63
63.5
37
121
90.4
52
98.1
53
64.2
38
114
92.2
i 50
98.0
51
66,7
i
Table 136. Accumulative incidence data on total pre-marital intercourse
Including pre-marital intercourse with companions and with prostitutes. In three
educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
551
Figure 145. Total pre-marital intercourse: accumulative incidence among single
males
Includes pre-marital intercourse with companions and pre-marital intercourse with
prostitutes. Based on pre-marital histories of population corrected for U. S. Census
distribution.
Figure 146. Total pre-marital intercourse: accumulative incidence in three
educational levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever had pre-marital experience by each
ot the indicated ages. Data based on unmarried males.
552
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
to college, about 67 per cent has coital experience before marriage; among
those who go into high school but not beyond, about 84 per cent has such
intercourse; and among the boys who never go beyond grade school the
accumulative incidence figure is 98 per cent. There are even some groups
among the lower social levels where it appears to be impossible to find a
single male who had not had experience by the time he had reached his
middle teens. These class differences account for the fact that many an
upper level clinician is amazed (as in Hohman and Schaffner 1947) at the
coital records of the men with whom he is called upon to deal in a penal
or mental institution, in the Army or in the Navy, in a factory or on some
other industrial assignment. Most of the previous studies which have been
confined to males of a single social level arrive at much the same incidence
figures which we have obtained: 54 per cent in Hamilton (1929), 55 per
cent in Peterson (1938), 52 per cent in Bromley and Britten (1938), 60 per
cent in Wile (1941), 45 per cent in Finger (1947) — most of these for males
of the college level, while they were still in college and therefore short of
having their full pre-marital experience. Another group of studies (Exner
1915, Achilles 1923, Willoughby 1937, Terman 1938, Butterfield 1939) has
involved populations of mixed social levels, and other sources of error
which make the data uninterpretable.
The frequencies of pre-marital intercourse vary between social levels
even more than do the incidences (Tables 86, 1 1 1). Coitus, either with com-
panions or with prostitutes, never accounts for more than 21 per cent of the
total outlet of the unmarried males of the college level, but it may consti-
tute as much as 68 per cent of the outlet for males of the lower educational
levels. For the better educated portion of the population, the significance of
pre-marital intercourse lies not in the number of the orgasms which it
provides, but in the fact that such orgasms as do come from this source
represent a break with the mores of the group. An upper level male who is
not married thinks of sex as masturbation, nocturnal emissions, petting,
and a continual excitement over girls with whom he would like relations,
but with whom he rarely effects actual coitus. The lower level male, on the
other hand, may find it difficult to understand that a sex study should be
concerned with anything except heterosexual coitus, unless perchance he is
interested in homosexual relations.
In the population as a whole, the frequencies of pre-marital intercourse
reach their maximum (for those males who have any such experience) in
the earlier adolescent years, where coitus averages about 2.0 per week, and
where it provides nearly half of the total sexual outlet (Table 57). The fre-
quencies gradually drop with age, but not so fast as the total outlet drops.
Consequently the significance of pre-marital intercourse rises, and by the
middle forties it accounts for two-thirds (66.6%) of the total outlet of the
unmarried males who are having any coitus at all (Table 57).
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
553
Since masturbation and intercourse are the two chief sources of pre-
marital orgasm for the population as a whole, they are, as previously
noted, the only outlets which show the same range of individual variation.
There are some males, chiefly at the upper level, whose pre-marital inter-
course is confined to a single experience, and then only with the fiancee
immediately before marriage. There are some males, chiefly at the lower
levels, who have much higher frequencies of intercourse, even up to ten or
more times per week. In every age group between adolescence and 25
there are males who reach frequencies which may average as much as
25 times per week continuously for five or more years ; but the rates of the
extreme individuals are lower in the later years. For the total population
the frequencies average 1.4 per week in the late teens and early twenties,
and less than that thereafter. Boys of the lower level are more likely to av-
erage pre-marital intercourse with frequencies of two to four times a week,
which is close to the average frequencies in marriage for many of the popu-
lation. The rates for any particular individual may vary considerably, de-
pending upon the accessibility of female partners.
The highest incidences and highest average frequencies of pre-marital
intercourse occur among those males of the grade school level who became
adolescent by ten or eleven (Table 74). By the late teens, 86 per cent of this
lower level and early-adolescent group is having intercourse, as against
less than 33 per cent of the college-bred males who were late in becoming
adolescent. The highest frequencies of pre-marital intercourse are reached
by this same grade school group in their late teens, where the averages are
over 3.0 per week for the whole group, or 3.6 per week for those individuals
who are actively involved in intercourse. In the same age period (16-20),
the frequencies for the high school group average about 1.5 per week, and
for the college group about 0.3 per week (once in three weeks).
At all social levels, pre-marital intercourse occurs much less frequently
among males who are devoutly religious, whether they be Protestant or
Cathohc (Table 128). Conversely, it occurs most frequently among the
males who are least concerned with the Church. The frequencies are low
for all Jewish groups but, interestingly enough, the incidences and fre-
quencies seem to be higher for Orthodox Jews than for inactive Jews. This
may be a result of the considerable condemnation which the Jewish faith
puts upon masturbation as an outlet. The differences between devout and
inactive Catholics are much greater. There may be three times as much pre-
marital intercourse among inactive Catholics as there is among those who
follow the Church teachings more strictly. The differences between active
and inactive Protestants are not so great.
Pre-marital intercourse occurs much more often among boys who live in
cities and towns, less often among farm boys (Table 120). This is true at all
A<5£ GROUP • ADOL-15
EDUC LEVEL 0-8
-t.O -Z.0 -5.0 -40 -5.0 -60 -7.0
AGE GROUP • ADOL-15
EDUC LEVEL 9-IE
5 -1.0 -LO -3.0 -4 0 -5 0 -60 -7.0
LI 0 *90.7%
AGE GROUP • ADOL-15
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-1.0 -20 -50 -40 -50 -6.0
AGE GROUP ‘16-20
EDUC LEVEL 0-8
-8.0 -9.0 -10.0
AGE GROUP -16-20
EDUC LEVEL 9-12
0 - 1.0 - 2.0
%(| 0 *61 2 %
20 Ll
-40 -5.0 -6.0 -7.0 -8.0
AGE GROUP ‘16-20
EDUC LEVEL 13 +
-40 -50 -60 -7.0
FREQUENCY PER WEEK
Figure 147. Pre-marital intercourse with companions: individual variation in
frequencies, at ages adolescent~15 and 16-20, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which engages in pre-marital in-
tercourse with companions with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
554
AGE GROUP - 21- as
€DUC LEVEL 0-8
Figure 148. Pre-marital intercourse with companions: individual variation in
frequencies, at ages 21-25 and 26-30, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) that has pre-marital intercourse
with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
555
556
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
social levels, and it is particularly true in the earlier adolescent years. This
may be a product of the generally stricter religious attitudes in rural com-
munities, and/or of the reduced opportunity which the farm boy has to date
girls and to meet them in any sort of social relation.
Finally, the fundamental position of heterosexual coitus in the lives of
younger males is attested by the fact that the place of intercourse in the
present day is not materially different from what it was twenty-two years
ago (Table 99). As regards the incidences and frequencies with which it is
had in each social level, intercourse in the present generation is about what
it was a generation or two ago. For the college segment of the population,
as many males are involved, and with the same frequencies, as in the older
generations. In view of the considerable efforts that have been made by
some groups to control pre-marital intercourse, this failure to change the
pattern is most significant. For the lower educational levels, the accumula-
tive incidence figures for the younger generation are also the same as those
for the older generation ; but the lower level boys of the younger generation
start earlier and have higher frequencies at an earlier age. This earlier ac-
tivity may be the product of improved nutritional and health conditions in
the lower levels today.
In 1938, Terman, in a volume on Psychological Factors in Marital Hap-
piness, attempted to compare the amount of pre-marital intercourse in
older and younger generations. He reached the conclusion that there had
been a steady increase in the incidence of such activity among the persons
born in four successive decades (before 1890, and through 1910), and that
these trends were proceediag with such “extraordinary rapidity” that “in-
tercourse with future spouse before marriage will become universal by 1950
or 1955” — meaning among persons born in those years. This finding is not
borne out by data in the present study (Chapter 1 1). Since the Terman fig-
ures have been extensively quoted, it is important to point out that the
study, of which those data were a part, involved some basic procedural er-
rors. There was no sufficient, successive breakdown of the population for
the series of biologic and social factors which must be kept constant if
sound analyses are to be made (Chapter 3). The study was based upon
group-administered questionnaires, which have proved inadequate for sex
studies in all but a very few special cases. The subjects were mostly chents
of family relations institutes, and it is not certain that such a sample is rep-
resentative of the population as a whole. The group represented mixed edu-
cational levels. Nearly 71 per cent of the male population had had college
or more advanced training, but 30 per cent were persons who had not gone
beyond high school, or in some cases not beyond grade school. In view of
the considerable differences which our present data show to exist between
these several educational levels (Chapter 10), it is obvious that any mixed
population is inadequate for analyzing pre-marital intercourse.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
557
It should also be emphasized that the most strategic population in the
Terman series, the sample which estabhshed the last point (for 1910) on the
curve, included only 22 males. Such a sample is, of course, totally insuflB-
cient for representing any large portion of the American population (Chap-
ter 3). The data which we now have on pre-marital intercourse would lead
us to predict that there will always be a segment of the population which
will, as a moral issue, avoid such activity. While the incidence of pre-
marital intercourse has remained stable within each social level in the last
twenty or thirty years, it should be pointed out that the number of persons
who go to college has materially increased in that period. Since this is the
group that has the least pre-marital coitus, this means that there is now a
distinctly larger portion of the population which is going without pre-
marital coitus than there was when Terman made his prediction ten years
ago.
NATURE OF PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
A detailed analysis of the varying situations under which pre-marital
intercourse is had will have to be made in a later publication. It should,
however, be emphasized now that the intercourse varies considerably not
only in frequencies but also in regard to the number of partners involved,
in regard to the nature of the partners, and in regard to the times and places
where the activity is had.
There are males, particularly of the upper social level, who may confine
their pre-marital intercourse to a single girl, who is often the fiancee.
There are males who have some dozens or scores of partners before they
marry. In some cases, lower level males may have intercourse with several
hundred or even a thousand or more girls in pre-marital relations. There
are quite a few individuals, especially of the grade school and high school
levels, who find more interest in the pursuit and conquest, and in a variety
of partners, than they do in developing long-time relations with a single
girl. Some males avoid all repetitions of experience with the same girl.
Sometimes the interest which such a promiscuous male has in heterosexual
coitus does not involve any interest in the girls themselves. Many a lower
level male states quite frankly that he does not hke girls, and that he would
have nothing to do with them if it were not for the fact that they are sources
of intercourse. There are vernacular phrases which precisely sum up this
situation. Until such attitudes are comprehended by clinicians, and espe-
cially by pubhc health officials, and until such professional groups under-
stand the lower level’s ability to effect frequent contacts with such a va-
riety of partners, the control of venereal disease is not likely to become more
effective.
Unfortunately, data on the social levels of the girls with whom males
have their pre-marital relations have not been systematically gathered in
the present study. There is a popular opinion that most pre-marital inter-
558
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
course is had with girls who are below the social status of the male. Such
information as we have does not seem to confirm this opinion. Certainly,
at the college level today, males find a great deal of their pre-marital inter-
course within their own level. Although there is some reason for believing
that older generations of college males more often resorted to town girls
for their sexual contacts, the specific data are not available. Of course, the
educationally lower level males have most of their pre-marital intercourse
with lower level girls.
The upper level male has only a very small portion of his pre-marital
contacts with professional prostitutes. The lower level male depends to a
much greater degree upon the commercial source.
Most males have intercourse with girls of about their own age, or with
girls who are only a few years younger. Only a few males have intercourse
with very young girls, except when they themselves are equally young.
There are not many males who have intercourse with women who are
much older than themselves, although there are some cases of teen-age and
even pre-adolescent boys who have intercourse with married women in
their twenties, their thirties, or older. A few males develop long-time rela-
tions with older women, either single, married, or divorced women; but
nearly all of the intercourse which the young, unmarried male has is with
unmarried females.
Heterosexual incest occurs more frequently in the thinking of clinicians
and social workers than it does in actual performance. There may be a
good many males who have thought of the possibilities of sexual relations
with sisters or mothers or with other close female relatives, but even this
is by no means universal, and is usually confined to limited periods in the
boy’s younger years. There are some psychoanalysts who contend that
they have never had a patient who has not had incestuous relations; but
such a statement is totally out of line with the specific records which have
been obtained in this study or which, for that matter, have been obtained
in any other survey of the general population. The clinician must beware
that the select group of persons who come to a clinic does not color his
thinking concerning the population as a whole. In the present study, such
incestuous relations as have been recorded represent every social level, in-
cluding males of the lower levels and males who belong to the socially top
levels. Because the cases are so few, it would be misleading to suggest
where the highest incidences lie. The most frequent incestuous contacts are
between pre-adolescent children, but the number of such cases among ado-
lescent or older males is very small.
The circumstances under which pre-marital intercourse is had differ
again for social levels. Some of the intercourse which the college male has
before marriage may be had on the college grounds, or in college buildings,
but more of it occurs during vacation periods, often in the girPs home town.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
559
and often under the girl’s parental roof. For all levels, intercourse is had
in cars, some of it outdoors in the open, some in tourist camps and hotels,
some in the homes of friends or in rented apartments, some in the male’s
home, but much of it in the home of the girl. Special provisions for pre-
marital intercourse are almost as commonly accepted in certain seg-
ments of the population as communal bachelors’ huts are in some primi-
tive societies (Malinowski 1929, Murdock 1934, Reichard 1938, Mead
1939, Bryk 1944, Fehlinger 1945, Morley 1946).
While the upper social level has a high portion (90%) of its marital inter-
course without clothing, not much more than half (55%) of its pre-marital
intercourse is had under circumstances where that is possible (Table 95).
The lower social level, which has less than half (43%) of its marital inter-
course without clothing, has even less (32%) of its pre-marital intercourse
in that fashion.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
To have or not to have pre-marital intercourse is a more important issue
for more males than any other aspect of sex. Heterosexual intercourse is
the ultimate goal of all sexual thought and of all deliberately planned sexual
activity for perhaps half or more of the unmarried male population; and it
is a matter of considerable importance for a high proportion of the re-
maining males who, nevertheless, may get their actual outlet from other
sources. Except for the 15 per cent of the population which goes to col-
lege, most males actually accept pre-marital intercourse, and believe it
to be a desirable part of a normal human development. Even among those
who pubhcly uphold the taboos against pre-marital relations, including
legislators and the law enforcement officers who sporadically impose legal
penalties upon non-marital activities, there are many who demonstrate
through their own histories that they consider pre-marital and extra-
marital intercourse acceptable and desirable. There is a not inconsiderable
portion of the population which openly defends the value of such inter-
course. This is particularly true at the lower educational levels, but it is
sometimes true at top social levels. The general impression which is held
by many students of social affairs that the middle class is the one which
most rigorously upholds the social traditions is obviously based on the ex-
pressed opinions of this group, rather than upon the record of its actual
behavior.
In Continental Europe, the acceptance of pre-marital intercourse is more
general than it is in our American population, and European clinicians have
contributed materially to an increasing opinion among professional groups
in this country that there are social values to be obtained by pre-marital
experience in intercourse. There are some clinicians who advise their pa-
tients to this effect, and there are histories of individuals who would have
19
560
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
found it difiScult to have made socio-sexual adjustments without such ex-
perience.
On the other hand, of course, there is no sort of sexual behavior which
has been more often condemned than pre-marital intercourse. It has usu-
ally been condemned on strictly moral grounds (as in Jefferis and Nichols
1912, Armitage 1913, Exner 1914, Gallichan 1916, Bigelow 1916, Forbush
1919, W. S. Hall 1920, Coppens and Spalding 1921, U. S. Public Health
Service 1921, 1937, Meyer 1927, 1929, 1934, Eddy 1928a, Clark 1928, El-
liott and Bone 1929, Kirsch 1930, Gillis 1930, Amer. Soc. Hygiene Associa-
tion 1930, Ruland and Rattler 1934, Hildebrand 1935, Martindale 1925,
Bruckner 1937, Lowry 1938, A Catholic Woman Doctor 1939, Kelly 1941,
H. Frank 1941, Moore 1943, Dickerson 1944, GriflBn 1945, 1946, Davis
1946, Wood in Chivers 1946, Gartland 1946, McGill 1946, Redemptorist
Father 1946).
More scientific issues are raised when pre-marital intercourse is con-
demned on the ground that it leads to unwanted pregnancies, to the birth
of offspring outside of wedlock, to the acquirement and spread of venereal
disease, to psychic upset for the individual, to social and legal diflSculties,
and to maladjustments with one’s spouse after marriage (W. S. Hall 1907,
1909, Liederman 1926, Eddy 1928a, 1928b, Amer. Soc. Hygiene Associa-
tion 1930, Dickerson 1930, 1937, 1944, 1946, Exner 1932, Rice 1933a,
1933b, 1946, Meagher and Jelliffe 1936, Popenoe 1936, 1940, 1943, 1944,
Stone and Stone 1937, Snow 1937, Clarke 1938, Butterfield 1939, Crisp
1939, Kirkendall 1940, Bowman 1942, Sadler and Sadler 1944, Adams
1946, Boys Club Amer. 1946, R. Frank 1946). The questions involved here
represent physical situations and measurable social relationships which can
be subjected to scientific investigation. Unfortunately, the few scientists
who have written on these matters have treated them in much the same
subjective fashion as have persons without scientific backgrounds. There
have been pleas for polygamy and promiscuity and there have been pleas
for chastity, written by biologists, by physicians, by psychologists, and by
psychiatrists, quite without benefit from the scientific training on which
they traded for their reputations.
In a later volume we shall endeavor to make an objective study of pre-
marital intercourse in its several social relations, and particularly in regard
to its effect on subsequent marital adjustments. It may be pointed out now
that simple correlations (as used in Terman 1938, Burgess and Cottrell
1939) cannot suflSce to measure the effects of pre-marital experience upon
marital histories. Simple two-way correlations are never wholly adequate
for showing cause and effect. At the best they show a relation, but not
necessarily a causal relationship. They are always inadequate unless the
items that are correlated are well-defined units, rather than complexes of
units which have varied effects as their ingredients vary.
PRE-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
561
It does not suffice to show that the persons who have had or who have
not had pre-marital experience are the ones who make the best or do not
make the best adjustments after marriage. For pre-marital intercourse is
always a complexity of things. It is, in part, a question of the sort of indi-
vidual who has the intercourse and the degree to which the pre-marital
activity is acceptable or unacceptable in the individual’s whole pattern of
behavior. It depends upon the extent of the psychic conflict which may be
evoked for an individual who transgresses the ideals and philosophies by
which he has been raised, and to which he may still subconsciously adhere.
For a person who believes that pre-marital intercourse is morally wrong
there may be, as the specific histories show, conflicts which can do damage
not only to marital adjustments, but to the entire personality of the indi-
vidual. For a person who really accepts pre-marital intercourse, and who in
actuahty is not in conflict with himself when he engages in such behavior,
the outcome may be totally different.
Again, the effects of pre-marital intercourse depend upon the nature of
the partners with whom it is had, and the degree to which the activity be-
comes promiscuous. It is a question of the nature of the female partners,
whether it is had with girls of the same social level or with girls of lower
social levels, whether it is had as a social relationship or as a commercial
relation, whether or nor it is had with the fiancee before marriage. The
effect of pre-marital intercourse upon the marital adjustment may depend
upon the extent to which the female partner accepts the intercourse, and
the extent to which the male accepts the idea of his wife’s having had in-
tercourse before he married her. Even in those cases where both the spouses
beheve that they accept the idea, situations of stress after marriage may
bring the issue up for recriminations.
The significance of pre-marital intercourse depends upon the situations
under which it is had. If it is had under conditions which are physically un-
comfortable and not conducive to a mutually satisfactory relationship, if
it is had under conditions which leave the individuals disturbed for fear
that they have been or will be detected, the outcome is one thing. If it is had
under satisfying circumstances and without fear, the outcome may be very
different.
The meaning of the pre-marital intercourse will vary with its relation to
venereal disease. At the college level, nearly all of the relations are had with
a condom. Most of the pre-marital intercourse is had with girls of the same
level. Consequently the incidence of venereal disease acquired by these
persons is exceedingly low. On the other hand, the incidence of venereal
disease resulting from pre-marital intercourse at the lower social levels,
where condoms are not often used, is as high as and probably higher than
is ordinarily indicated in the social hygiene literature.
562
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
The significance of pre-marital intercourse depends upon the success or
failure with which the couple avoids an unwanted pregnancy. It is much
affected even by the fear of such a pregnancy. At the college level where
contraceptives are almost universally used, the incidence of pre-marital
pregnancies is phenomenally low. Those pregnancies that do occur almost
invariably represent instances where contraceptives were not employed. In
segments of the population which rarely use contraceptives, the frequencies
of pre-marital pregnancies are quite high.
At the other end of the correlation, it is, of course, equally inadequate to
treat marital happiness as a unit character. There are many factors which
may affect marital adjustment, and the identification of the part which the
sexual factor plays must depend on an exceedingly acute understanding of
the effects of all these other factors.
It is sometimes asserted that all persons who have pre-marital intercourse
subsequently regret the experience, and that such regrets may constitute a
major cloud on their lives. There are a few males whose histories seem to
indicate that they have so reacted to their pre-marital experience, but a very
high proportion of the thousands of experienced males whom we have
questioned on this point indicated that they did not regret having had such
experience, and that the pre-marital intercourse had not caused any trouble
in their subsequent marital adjustments. It is notable that most of the males
who did regret the experience were individuals who had had very little pre-
marital intercourse, amounting in most cases to not more than one or two
experiences. It will, of course, be particularly significant at some later time
to compare the responses of the females who have had pre-marital ex-
perience.
For the individual who is particularly concerned with the moral values
of sexual behavior, none of these scientific issues are, of course, of any
moment. For such individuals, moral issues are a very real part of life.
They are as real as the social values of a heterosexual adjustment, and the
happiness or unhappiness of a marital adjustment. They should not be
overlooked by the scientist who attempts to make an objective measure of
the outcome of pre-marital intercourse.
Chapter 18
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
Marital intercourse is the one type of sexual activity which is approved
by our Anglo-American mores and legal codes. For those males who are
married and living with their wives, marital intercourse accounts for most
of the sexual outlet; and to them, a successful sexual adjustment means
sufiBciently frequent and emotionally effective intercourse with their wives.
It is, in consequence, inevitable in any study of human sexual behavior that
especial attention be given to the nature of marital relationships.
Sociologists and anthropologists generally consider that the family is the
basis of human society, and at least some students believe that the sexual
attraction between the anthropoid male and female has been fundamental
in the development of the human and infra-human family. Supporting data
for these opinions are adduced from a study of the anthropoid family (e.g,,
Miller 1928, 1931). But whatever the phylogenetic history of the human
family, the evidence is clear that the sexual factor contributes materially to
its maintenance today. We have already emphasized (Chapter 16) that the
success or failure of a marriage usually depends upon a multiplicity of fac-
tors, of which the sexual are only a part. Nevertheless, as we have further
pointed out, where the sexual adjustments are poor, marriages are main-
tained with difficulty.
Society is interested in the nature of marital intercourse because it is in-
terested in the maintenance of the family. Society is interested in maintain-
ing the family as a way for men and women to live together in partnerships
that may make for more effective functioning than solitary living may al-
low. Society is interested in maintaining the family as a means of providing
homes for children that result from coitus; and in Jewish and many Chris-
tian philosophies, this is made a prime end of marriage. Society is also in-
terested in maintaining families as a means of providing a regular sexual
outlet for adults, and as a means of controlling promiscuous sexual activity.
While these latter interests are not so often formulated in the thinking of
our culture, these functions of marriage are more evident in some primitive
cultures. Whatever other interests are involved, the sexual factor is one
which is of considerable concern to any group that is interested in the
maintenance of the family.
While it is not the function of the present chapter to measure the signifi-
cance of the sexual factors in the success or failure of a marriage, it will
summarize the data which have been given in the present volume on the
563
564
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
nature of sexual relations in marriage. With this as a starting point, it
should be possible, in a subsequent volume, to make more understanding
analyses of the data which we are gathering on the sexual factor in marital
adjustments.
That the present volume has been so largely concerned with types of sex-
ual activity other than marital intercourse is due to the fact that only a por-
tion of the male population is married at any one time. There are, of course,
males who never marry; and every male spends a considerable part of his
life outside of marriage. All males must depend, at times, on some other
source than marital intercourse for their sexual outlets. Moreover, even
those males who are married derive a not inconsiderable portion of their
orgasms from sources other than intercourse with their wives. It is one of
the functions of the present chapter to show the place of marital intercourse
among the many sexual activities which contribute to the total sexual life
of the human male.
REFERENCES
The term marital intercourse as used in the present volume applies to in-
tercourse which is had between spouses. Specific data on the incidences and
frequencies of marital intercourse, and the factors affecting that intercourse,
have been presented previously in this volume as follows:
PAGE
TABLE
FIGURE
NATURE OF DATA
234
49
Range of variation and marital intercourse
252-257
56
44-49
Age and marital intercourse
277-281
63
Total intercourse in relation to marital status and age
306-308
71
Total sexual outlet in married males, as related to age
at onset of adolescence
355-358,
88,112
104
Social level and marital intercourse
432
363-369
93
Petting techniques at three educational levels
368-373
94
Oral techniques at three educational levels
365-367,
95
Coital techniques and nudity at three educational levels
372-374
380, 382
97
107
Patterns of sexual behavior among married males
410, 414
104
Frequencies of marital intercourse in older and younger
generations
455, 459
122
Marital intercourse and rural-urban backgrounds
479-482
130
Marital intercourse and religious backgrounds
382, 488-
97
126-127,
Significance of marital intercourse as one source of
489
131-133
total outlet
564-566
149-150
Accumulative incidence for total intercourse
564-565,
151
Individual variation in marital intercourse
570
INCIDENCE AND SIGNIFICANCE
Marital intercourse is the one sort of sexual activity which involves prac-
tically 100 per cent of the eligible males in the population. There are ex-
ceedingly few who marry and then fail to have any intercourse with their
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
565
wives. Exceptions occur only among those who never live with their spouses
after marriage, among those very few who are physically incapable of even
attempting intercourse, among a few of those who are primarily homo-
sexual and whose wives may be similarly homosexual, and among the still
fewer males who are so inhibited by religious, esthetic, or other philoso-
phies that they are incapable of performance or deliberately choose to
avoid coitus even with their wives. Under forty years of age, these abstinent
males are so few that they never account for more than a fraction of 1 per
cent of the married population. At later ages, there are a few more males
who do not engage in marital intercourse: as many as 2 per cent in the late
forties and as many as 6 per cent in the late fifties (Table 56). No other type
of sexual activity is found in the histories of such a high proportion of an
eligible population.
Showing percent of total population that has ever had experience in any kind of inter-
course by each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population irrespective of
marital status, and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.
But although marital intercourse thus provides the chief source of outlet
for married males, immediately from the time of onset of marriage, it falls
considerably short of constituting the total outlet of those individuals. In
the married population taken as a whole, it does not ordinarily provide
more than about 85 per cent of the total sexual outlet (Table 56). The re-
maining orgasms of the married male are derived from masturbation, noc-
turnal emissions, petting and heterosexual coitus with partners other than
wives, the homosexual, and, especially in some Western rural areas, from
intercourse with other animals (Figures 131-133). There is no pre-marital
sexual activity which may not continue into marriage, although the fre-
quencies of all these other activities are almost invariably reduced.
566
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Intercourse: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
TOTAL POPULATION
U. S. CORRECTIONS
EDUC, LEVEL
0-8
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
feper.
Cases '
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
4148
0.0
663
0.0
668
0.0
2817 !
0.0
9
4148
0.0
663
0.0
■ 668 1
0.0 i
2817 [
0.0
10
4148
0.1
663
0.2 1
1 668
0.0
2817 '
0.0
11
4148
0.8
663
1.4 i
■ 668
0.7
2817 [
0.2
12
4148
4.4
663
6.8 i
i 668
4.0 ,
2817 '
1.0
13
4147
12.9
662
15.0
1 668
14.2
2817
3.1
14
4143
25.6
659
28.2
667
29.2
2817
j 6.0
15
4115
36.8
653
42.7 i
645 1
40.6
2817
9.5
16
4047
49.2
636 f
57.2
595 !
53.4
2816
15.5
17
3939
60.1
599 1
67.6
’ 526 ’
65.6
2814
23.1
18
3769
68.3
575 ,
78.1
456
72.6
2738
30.9
19
3516
73.9
545 '
82.4
397 !
78.3
2574
38.3
20
3206
77.1
517
86.1
350 :
80.3
2339
45.7
21
2832
80.5
493
88.4
306
83.7
2033
50.9
22
2430
83.9
474
91.4
284
86.3
1672
58.3
23
2114
86.5
458 ;
92.6
259
89.2
1397 1
63.0
24
1823 ,
88.6
438
95.0
233
90.1
1152 :
68.8
25
1637 ’
90.7
418
95.7
217 '
91.7
1002
75.0
26
1494 ,
91.8
407
96.6
203
91.6
884
80.1
27
1359 !
93.6
393
97.5
192
93.8
774
82.6
28
1253 '
94.2
379 i
97.6 '
175
94.3
699
85.1
29
1144
94.7
355 j
97.5
155
94.8
634
87.1
30
1050
95.2
339 1
97.9
138
94.2
! 573 i
89.5
31
973
95,9
319 '
98.1
125
95.2
529 1
90.9
32
915
96.0
307
98.7
116
94.8
492 i
91.3
33 ;
856
95.9
295
98.6
113
94.7
: 448 j
91.1
34
804 :
96.5
287
99.0
105
95.2
412 ‘
92.5
35
747
97.4
273
99.3
92
95.7
382
93.2
36
703
97.9
260
99.6
87
96.6
356
93.8
37
641
98.5
242
99.6
76
98.7
■ 323
93.5
38
611
98.6
234
99.6
70
98.6
307 '
94.1
39
556
98.6
212
^.5
64
98.4
280
95.4
40
509
98.8
194
99.5
58
98.3
257
96.1
41
474
99.3
183
99.5
53
100.0
238
96.2
42
445
99.2
174
99.4
50
100.0
221
95.9
43
399
99.1
159
99.4
192
95.3
44
369
99.1
146
99.3
177
95.5
45
340
99.0
135
99.3
^
161
95.0
Table 137, Accumulative incidence data on total heterosexual intercourse
Covering the life span, including pre-marital, marital, extra-^marital, and post-marital
coitus with companions and with prostitutes. In three educational levels, and in the
total population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
567
The percentage of the total outlet which the married male derives from
intercourse with his spouse varies considerably with different social levels.
For the lower level group it provides 80 per cent of the outlet during the
early years of marriage, but an increasing proportion of the outlet as the
marriage continues (Table 97). By 50 years of age the lower level male is
deriving 90 per cent of his outlet from marital intercourse. On the other
hand, males of the college level derive a larger proportion of their outlet
(85%) from intercourse with their wives during the early years of marriage,
but a smaller proportion of their outlet in later years. Not more than 62 per
cent of the upper level male’s outlet is derived from marital intercourse by the
age of 55. At no time in their lives do college-bred males depend on marital
intercourse to the extent that lower level males do throughout most of their
marriages.
Figure 150. All intercourse: accumulative incidence in three educational levels
Showing percent of total population that has ever had experience in intercourse of
any kind, by each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective
of marital status, and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.
These data will surprise most persons because there seems to have been
very little comprehension that marital intercourse provided anything less
than the total outlet for married males at all levels. Several scientific and
sociologic investigations have been based on the assumption that a study of
marital intercourse was the equivalent of studying the sexual lives of at
least the married portion of the population. This accords, of course, with
the emphasis placed in Anglo-American ethical systems on marital inter-
course as the goal of all sexual development; although there are some cul-
tures in which a history of sexuality would be primarily a history of non-
marital sexual activities.
The general opinion that males become increasingly interested in extra-
marital relations as they grow older, thus proves to be true only of the up-
568
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
per level male. The explanation of these differences between upper and
lower educational levels is not iimnediately available.
It is possible that the increased frequencies of extra-marital intercourse
among older males of the upper level are based on a conclusion that the
early restraints on their sexual lives were not justified, and on an interest in
securing extra-marital experience before old age has interfered with their
capacities to do so. It sometimes happens that the decrease in the frequency
of marital intercourse at this upper level is due to an increasing dissatisfac-
tion with the relations which are had with restrained upper level wives.
There are some who will ascribe the decrease in marital intercourse to the
preoccupation of the educated male with the professional or business af-
fairs of his life; but this explanation does not account for the fact that he
finds a third of his total sexual outlet through channels other than marital
intercourse. Moreover, it is to be emphasized that 19 per cent of the total
outlet of these older males is derived neither from their wives, nor from
extra-marital intercourse, nor from homosexual relations, but from such
solitary activities as masturbation and nocturnal emissions.
If we note that marital intercourse does not supply the whole of the out-
let of married males, it is even more important to note that it does not sup-
ply even half of the outlet of the male population taken as a whole (Figure
127). Only 60 per cent of the white American males are married at any
particular time (Table 1 1 extended into older age groups, and U. S. Census
1940). Calculating from the age distribution of the total population, and
from the mean frequencies of total outlet in each age group (Table 44), it
develops that there are, on an average, 231 orgasms per week per hundred
males between adolescence and old age. Calculating the orgasms secured
in marital intercourse in each age group (Table 56), and correcting for the
incidence of married males in the total population (Table 1 1), there prove
to be, on an average, 106 orgasms per week which are derived from coitus
with spouses, per hundred males of the total population (single and mar-
ried). This means that only 45.9 per cent of the total outlet of the total
population is derived from marital intercourse.
Thus it will be seen that marital intercourse, although it is the most im-
portant single source of sexual outlet, does not provide even half of the
total number of orgasms experienced by the males in our American popu-
lation. Allowing for the socially and legally accepted 5 or 6 per cent of the
outlet which is secured from nocturnal emissions (Figure 126), it is to be
concluded that approximately half of the sexual outlet of the total male
population is being secured from sources which are socially disapproved
and in large part illegal and punishable under the criminal codes. Marital
intercourse, important as it is in the lives of most of the population, falls
far short of constituting the whole of the sexual history of the American
male.
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
569
FREQUENCIES
In the population as a whole, and in all of its subdivisions, the highest
frequencies of marital intercourse occur in the youngest age groups. Males
who are married between 16 and 20 start with frequencies which average
3.9 for the population as a whole (Table 56), and many individuals at that
age have intercourse on an average of 5, 7, 10 or more times per week.
There is considerable individual variation, and the 15 per cent of the group
who are capable of multiple orgasm (Table 48, Figure 36) may regularly
secure 14, 21, or more climaces per week from intercourse with their wives.
Frequencies drop steadily from the teens to about 2.9 at age 30, to 1.8 at
age 50, and to 0.9 at age 60. Among all the calculations in the present study,
there is none which falls along straighter lines.
At the high school level the beginning frequencies of marital intercourse
may be as high as 4.1 per week; but here, too, the frequencies drop to
about 2.9 per week by age 30, and to similarly low rates at 60 years of age
(Table 88).
It is significant to find that the married males who have the highest total
outlets, most of which depend upon high frequencies of marital intercourse,
are, for every social level, those who became adolescent first (Table 71,
Figure 90). Married males who became adolescent as early as 10 or 1 1 av-
erage mean total outlets of 5 to 7 per week, if they are married during the
age period 16 to 20, as against mean outlets of 3.3 per week for the married
males who did not become adolescent until fifteen or later. It has already
been pointed out (Chapter 9) that this indicates that the wife’s part in de-
termining the frequency of marital intercourse is not as important as one
might expect. The age at which the male became adolescent or, more strictly
speaking, the general metabolic level which probably determines both the
age of onset of adolescence and the intensity of a male’s sex drive, appears
to be the prime factor in fixing the frequency of marital intercourse.
There are no significant differences between older and younger genera-
tions in the frequencies of their marital intercourse, in the same age pe-
riods.
Contrary to previous suggestions (Pearl 1925), frequencies of marital
intercourse prove to be slightly but consistently lower among rural males
than they are among city-bred males (Table 122), if corrections are made
for age and social level in making such comparisons. This is in accord with
the observation (Chapter 12) that the rural male has fewer chances to
make socio-sexual contacts of any sort, and is more inept in making sexual
advances even to his wife after marriage. It is also possible that there is more
religious restraint on sexual activity among rural groups.
It is significant to find that frequencies of marital intercourse are lower
among religiously active Protestants and higher among inactive Protestants
Figxire 151. Marital intercourse: individual variation in frequencies, at ages
21-25 and 26-30, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has marital intercourse
with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
570
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
571
(Table 130). The differences may amount to as much as 20 or 30 per cent.
There are not sufficient data on Catholic or Jewish marriages to warrant
any statements for those groups. The data on the Protestant groups are,
however, particularly interesting because the restraints which the church has
placed upon pre-marital relations, upon extra-marital relations, and upon
all other types of sexual activity outside of marital intercourse, are justified
by the explanation that the whole of one’s emotional and overt sexual life
should be developed around one lifelong partner in marriage. It would ap-
pear, however, that the effect of inhibitions on pre-marital sexual activity
are carried over into inhibitions upon coitus with the married partner.
Psychologically, this is quite what might have been expected.
Beyond these several factors which affect the frequencies of marital in-
tercourse, the restraint of the wife constantly lowers the frequencies in all
segments of the population, but chiefly among better educated groups. A
great many husbands wish their coitus were more frequent, and believe it
would be if their wives were more interested. That this may be an expression
of fact is peculiarly corroborated (Chapter 4) by the large number of wives
who report that they consider their coital frequencies already too high and
wish that their husbands did not desire intercourse so often. A very few
wives wish for more frequent coitus; only a very few husbands wish their
wives were not so desirous.
These differences in interest inevitably cause difficulties in marital ad-
justment, and there is no sexual factor which causes more difficulty at upper
social levels. The situation depends upon basic differences in the sexual
characteristics of males and females throughout the class Mammaha, and
it should be realized that they do not arise in the perversities of the par-
ticular individuals who happen to be united in a particular marriage. If
clinicians are to provide the maximum help in individual instances of mar-
ital maladjustment, it is fundamental that we learn as much as possible
about the diverse origins of the sexual responses of males and females
among higher animals in general, and among human males and females in
particular. A considerable body of data on these points will be reported in
subsequent volumes from the present research.
COITAL TECHNIQUES IN MARRIAGE
Individual variations that occur in the frequencies of marital intercourse
are matched and possibly exceeded by variations in the techniques em-
ployed in that intercourse. There are differences in the extent and the tech-
niques of the pre-coital play. There are differences in the positions em-
ployed in the intercourse. There are differences in the duration of the coital
unions. There are differences in the desire for nudity or for clothing during
intercourse. There are differences in preferences for light or dark. There
are differences in places and circumstances under which the intercourse is
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
m
had. There are some experimental individuals who may be involved in
group activities in connection with their marital intercourse.
There has been an insistence under our English- American codes that the
simpler and more direct a sexual relation, the more completely it is con-
fined to genital coitus, and the less the variation which enters into the per-
formance of the act, the more acceptable the relationship is morally. This
is the basis of much of our sex law, of a large portion of the sexual mores,
and of the lower level’s frequent avoidance of any variety in sexual rela-
tions — particularly if those relations are had with marital partners (Chap-
ter 10).
On the other hand, the educated portion of the population, especially
within more recent generations, includes a good many persons who feel
that any sort of activity which contributes to the significance of an emo-
tional relationship between spouses is justified, and that no sort of sexual
act is perverse if it so contributes to the marital relationship, even though
exactly the same act between two persons who were not spouses might be
considered a perversion. Even persons in high church positions have de-
fended this thesis, with restrictions in certain cases that variety is accept-
able only when the techniques are not an end in themselves, but a means of
increasing the possibility and probability of conception as an outcome of
the marriage. In the last two decades, marriage manuals have more or less
uniformly emphasized the value of variety in coital techniques, and have
probably encouraged an increasing proportion of the population to experi-
ment. It is to be noted, however, that the English- American common law
under which our courts still operate, and the specific statutes of our several
states, make no distinctions between acts that are “contrary to nature” in
marriage, and acts that are “contrary to nature” outside of marriage.
There is, however, a considerable portion of the population, totalling
perhaps a half or more of all persons, which is not interested in prolonging
a sexual relationship. This is true, for the most part, of the more poorly
educated portions of the population, although there are not a few upper
level individuals who react similarly. It is a mistake to assume that a so-
phistication of techniques would be equally significant to all persons. For
most of the population, the satisfaction to be secured in orgasm is the goal
of the sexual act, and the more quickly that satisfaction is attained, the
more effective the performance is judged to be. These attitudes among
lower educational levels may depend upon their generally lower imagina-
tive and emotional capacities, but they are probably as dependent upon a
sexual philosophy which makes any departure from the direct union of gen-
italia a perversion.
Extent of Petting. Pre-coital petting is limited in many of the lower level
histories to the most perfunctory sort of body contact, or to a single kiss or
two. In some cases even that much show of affection may be omitted. When
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
573
this occurs at upper levels it is usually assumed to indicate some lack of af-
fection, but it is unwarranted to make such an assumption for the great
body of the population which regularly limits its pre-coital play (Chapter
10). The average college-bred male is more likely to extend the pre-coital
petting for a matter of five to fifteen minutes or more. Some individuals,
especially younger persons in recent generations, may extend the pre-coital
play regularly to a half hour, or to an hour or more — occasionally for sev-
eral hours — before attempting coitus. In such a case the petting becomes
the chief source of the satisfaction in the relationship, and the orgasm in
which the activity finally culminates becomes significant as the climax,
rather than as the whole of the relationship.
Mouth Stimulation. If it is understood that sexual stimulation and re-
sponse may involve, and usually do involve, a major portion of the nervous
system (Chapter 5), and not merely that portion of the system which is lo-
cated in or connected with the genitalia, it will be seen that any area of the
body which is abundantly supphed with end organs of touch may become
a center for erotic arousal and response. Such “erogenous zones” are most
prominent on the lips, in the interior of the mouth and on the tongue, on
the breasts of certain individuals, on certain portions of the genitalia of
both males and females, and sometimes in the anal area.
There is, however, no part of the surface of the human body which may
not be a source of sexual stimulation and response, for there is no appre-
ciable area of the skin which is without end organs of touch. For different
individuals, the erotic responsiveness of different areas may vary, depend-
ing in part on the psychologic conditioning of the individual as a result of
his previous experience, but probably as often depending upon differences
in the innervation of the same area in different individuals. The statement
has been made by some psychiatrists that there is probably no portion of
the body which could not be made an erotic area if there were sufficient
psychologic conditioning for that area. While this is doubtful as applied to
all individuals, our record shows that there is no part of the human body
which is not sufficiently sensitive to effect erotic arousal and even orgasm
for at least some individuals in the population.
While the genitalia include the areas that are most often involved in sex-
ual stimulation and response, it is a mistake to think of the genitaha as the
only “sex organs,” and a considerable error to consider a stimulation or
response which involves any other area as biologically abnormal, unnat-
ural, contrary to nature, and perverse. Mouth, breast, anal, or other stimu-
lations involve the same nervous system (namely the whole nervous system)
which is involved in a genital response, and the arousal and orgasm which
are effected byiStimulation of the other areas involve the same physiology
(as far as we yet understand them) which is involved in arousal and orgasm
ejffected through the stimulation of genital areas. That this is not generally
574
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
understood is due to the considerable taboo in our culture on all non-
genital sexual activity. As already noted (Chapters 10, 16), the lower mam-
mals, unrestricted by social convention, know and utilize oral and anal
stimulations as well as genital (Beach 1947); and even the most restrained
of the human animals give evidence of their positive response by blocking
and becoming violently upset at the mere suggestion of such activities. The
violence of our social and legal condemnations of these phenomena is tes-
timony to the psychologist and to the biologist that it is a basic biologic
urge that is being repressed. The “sophisticate” who utilizes non-genital
stimulations is, like the “sophisticate” who accepts nudity in a sexual rela-
tion, returning to basic mammalian patterns of behavior (Chapter 6).
In actuality, as American custom goes, genital stimulation is most often
utilized, but mouth stimulation is involved to at least some degree among
a considerable portion of the males and, to a somewhat lesser degree,
among the females in the population. That the full possibilities of deep
mouth and tongue stimulation are not more often utilized, is a measure of
the extent to which the cultural restraints have modified human sexual be-
havior.
At upper social levels lip kissing is an almost invariable concomitant (in
99.6%) of heterosexual relations (Table 93). At this level, there is a con-
siderable amount of kissing as a show of affection between spouses through-
out the day’s activities, and it is inevitable that the kissing should be still
further extended in actual sexual relations. Kissing is involved both as an
element in the pre-coital play, and as an accompaniment to actual coitus.
At lower social levels taboos on all oral contacts are much stronger (Chap-
ters 10, 16), and even simple lip kissing is reduced to a minimum. While it
does occur in many (96%) of the lower level histories (Table 93), it is usu-
ally limited in amount.
Deep kissing, which may involve contacts of the inner lips, tongue con-
tacts, and the stimulation of the interior of the partner’s mouth, is a fre-
quent element (in 87%) of the pre-coital contacts at upper levels; but only
a smaller portion (55%) of the lower social level engages in such activities
(Table 93). Among less restrained couples deep kissing is a simultaneous
accompaniment of actual coitus, especially at the moment of orgasm. In
such groups mouth eroticism is developed to a considerable degree, and it
may be fully as significant as the actual union of genitalia, or even more
significant in effecting arousal to the point of climax.
Breast Stimulation, Manual and oral manipulations of the female breast
are elaborated to a considerable degree among many persons of upper
social levels (Table 93). There is at least incidental touching of the female
breast in nearly all (99%) of the upper level histories, and ima considerable
proportion (85%) of the lower level histories. Oral manipulations of the
female breast occur in 93 per cent of the upper level histories, but in only
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
575
63 per cent of the histories of the married males who belong to the high
school level, and in only 36 per cent of the histories of the married males
who have never gone beyond grade school.
Breast manipulation of the sort in which the upper level engages is a
source of considerable arousal to the male who provides the manipulation.
There is reason to believe that more males in our culture are psychically
aroused by contemplation of the female breast than by the sight of female
genitalia. In the light of this fact, it is interesting to observe the lengths to
which censors and law'enforcement agencies go to prohibit the exhibition
of genitalia, although they frequently allow the display of the nude female
breast. How much of the American male’s interest in female breasts is cul-
tural, and how much of it is biologically based, would be an interesting
matter to investigate, especially in view of the frequent display of breasts
among primitive peoples elsewhere in the world.
There are many females who find some specific arousal in breast stimu-
lation, but there may be even more who are not particularly aroused by
breast contacts. Only a few females, perhaps not more than a few percent,
are ever brought to orgasm by breast stimulation unaccompanied by
genital contacts.
It is important to note that females rarely attempt to manipulate male
breasts. This may be due to the greater prominence of the female breast
and to the wider knowledge of its eroticism. Conversely it may be due to
the lesser prominence of the male breast and to the general lack of knowl-
edge of its erotic capacities. It may also be due to the fact that the female
is generally less responsive than the male erotically, and for that reason as
well as because of social custom less often takes the initiative in any sex
play. At any rate, most males whose experiences are confined to the hetero-
sexual have never had their breast eroticism tested, and it has, therefore,
been impossible to obtain data on the percentage in the population as a
whole who have particularly sensitive breasts. Among males with extensive
homosexual histories, however, breast manipulation is fairly frequent and
it is commonly known in such groups that many males have highly sensi-
tive breasts. The data from such cases indicate that there may be as many
males as there are females who are sensitive to breast stimulation.
Genital Stimulation, Manual. Hand manipulation of the female genitaha
by the male occurs at least incidentally in all social levels, but its elabora-
tion is more characteristic of the better educated groups (Table 93). With
the anatomic information supplied by current marriage manuals, most
upper level males have become aware of the existence of the clitoris in the
female, and studied techniques of stimulation of the vulva in general and
of the chtoris in particular are becoming more frequent accompaniments
of upper level coitus (in 95%). In such groups it is now generally believed
(again, in consequence of marriage manual instruction), that the female
576
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
should be aroused to a considerable height before there is an actual union
of genitalia. The biologic and psychologic desirability of this is something
that needs further study; but the fact remains that upper level males of
younger generations often operate on this theory.
The most common error which the male makes concerning female sexu-
ality is the assumption that stimulation of the interior of the vagina is
necessary to bring maximum satisfaction to the female. This is obviously
based upon the fact that vaginal insertion of the penis during coitus may
result in orgasm for the female. It is a considerable question, however, how
significant the stimulation of the interior of the vagina may be. It is certain
that most of the physical stimulation which the female receives from actual
coitus comes from contact of the external areas of the vulva, of the areas
immediately inside the outer edges of the labia, and of the clitoris, with the
pubic area of the male during genital union.
There is a great deal of anatomic and clinical evidence that most of the
interior of the vagina is without nerves. A considerable amount of surgery
may be performed inside the vagina without need for anesthetics. Nerves
have been demonstrated inside the vagina only in an area in the anterior
wall, proximate to the base of the clitoris. There is need for much further
research in this field, especially because there is a widespread but certainly
unfounded opinion among psychiatrists, which is repeated among other
clinicians involved in marriage counseling, that there is such a thing as a
vaginal orgasm which is something different from an orgasm achieved
through clitoral stimulation. The whole question will be reviewed in de-
tail in our subsequent volume on the female.
Beyond the occasional consciousness of stimulation of this limited vag-
inal area which is known to have nerves, the female may be conscious of
the intrusion of an object into the vagina, particularly if vaginal muscles
are tightened; but the satisfaction so obtained is probably related more to
muscle tonus than it is to erotic nerve stimulation. This interpretation is
confirmed by the fact that there are exceedingly few females who mastur-
bate by inserting objects into the vagina, and most of them who do so are
novices, exhibitionistic prostitutes, or women who have had such pro-
cedures recommended to them by male clinicians. Most of the female
masturbatory techniques are labial or, more often, clitoral. A high pro-
portion of the female homosexual relations similarly depend upon stimu-
lating the vulva or the clitoris. The male who attempts to simulate coital
intromission in his petting techniques is probably not so effective as the
male who depends primarily on external stimulation of the genital labia,
or of the clitoris.
Genital Stimulation, Oral. In marital relations, oral stimulation of male
or female genitalia occurs in about 60 per cent of the histories of persons
who have been to college, although it is in only about 20 per cent of the
MARITAL INTERCOLTRSE
577
histories of the high school level and in 1 1 per cent of the histories of the
grade school level (Table 94). Because of the long-standing taboos in our
culture on mouth-genital activity, it is quite probable that there has been
more cover-up on this point than on most others in the present study, and
the above figures must, therefore, represent minimum incidences. In nearly
all of the upper level histories which involve oral contacts the males make
contacts with the female genitalia. In about 47 per cent of the histories, the
females make similar contacts with the male genitalia. The frequencies of
such contacts range from a single experimental instance to regular and
abundant elaborations of oral techniques in connection with nearly every
sexual relation.
Since an appreciable portion of the male homosexual contacts, and some
part of the female homosexual contacts, may involve mouth-genital tech-
niques, oral activities between males and females have sometimes been
considered “homosexual.” There is, of course, no scientific justification for
such a use of the term, and an analysis of oral contacts in the heterosexual
does not show any homosexual element involved. It is the basic, oral eroti-
cism of the mammal which is concerned in all mouth-genital relations,
whatever the sex of the partner.
The English-American common law and most of the American written
codes condemn all mouth-genital contacts, whether they occur between
partners of the same sex, or between partners of the opposite sex, and
whether they occur within marriage or outside of marriage. While the laws
are more commonly enforced in regard to such relations outside of mar-
riage, there are instances of spouses whose oral activities became known to
their children and through them to the neighborhood, and ultimately led
to prosecution and penal sentences for both husband and wife. Because of
the taboos in this country, not even psychiatrists have comprehended the
considerable incidence of such relations among married partners. Such ac-
tivities have been more freely discussed in certain European cultures, and
they have, of course, been recorded from every culture in the history of the
world, including the most ancient from which there are documentary or
pictorial records, pottery, or other materials (from Greece, Rome, India,
China, Japan, Peru, Bali, etc.).
Because of the widespread taboos on the subject, the contemplation of
participation in oral-genital activities often results in blocked emotional re-
sponses which erupt in bitter condemnations of the partner who initiated
the activity, and sometimes produce alimentary peristalsis resulting in nau-
sea or diarrhea. This is, of course, the clearest sort of evidence that the
affected individuaFs initial responses were positive, for it demands a block-
age of a definite reaction to produce such a violent disturbance. The male,
with his higher level of sexual responsiveness, is the one who is more often
interested in making oral contacts, and it is the wife who is more often
578
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
offended. This may lead to guilt feelings on the part of both of the partners.
The refusal of the wife to accept such contacts, or the husband’s hesitancy
to risk his wife’s refusal, may lead some upper level males to seek oral con-
tacts with prostitutes.
There is a not inconsiderable list of histories in which dissension over
oral relations has caused serious disagreements in marriage, and a fair
number of divorces have revolved around this question, although the con-
testing partners rarely disclose the real source of their difficulty when they
come to court action. There are several instances of wives who have mur-
dered their husbands because they insisted on mouth-genital contacts. Un-
fortunately, marriage counselors, clinical psychologists, and psychiatrists
have not known enough about the basic biology of these contacts, nor
enough about the actual frequencies of such behavior in the population, to
be able to help their patients as often as they might, and they have not been
able to supply courts with adequate scientific data when such cases have
come up. The clinician who advises a patient that oral contacts are rare
and abnormal and that they constitute sexual perversions is merely epit-
omizing the mores. He is not supplying scientific data. On the other hand,
the clinician who freely advises acceptance of such contacts must not over-
look the deep emotional values which are rooted in the long-time customs
of our society, and which for many persons are prime factors in determining
their individual behavior.
A list of the social problems which most often arise out of human sexual
activity would give first places to venereal disease, bastardy, rape, and the
contribution by adults to the delinquency of minor children. On the other
hand, personal conflicts most often develop over masturbation, oral con-
tacts, and the homosexual. These are the three that need especial help —
not because they are rare, but because they are widespread, and because
nearly every male in the population is at one time or other involved in one
or more of them. These are the three that are most often encountered by
the clinician, not because men are frequently abnormal or recently become
perverse, but because all three of these are part of the basic biologic pattern
of mammalian sexual behavior, and because no legislation or social taboos
have been able to eliminate them from the history of the human animal.
Positions in Intercourse. As previously indicated (Chapter 10), nearly all
coitus in our English-American culture occurs with the partners lying face
to face, with the male above the female. There may be as much as 70 per
cent of the population (estimated from Table 95) which has never at-
tempted to use any other position in intercourse. It is the better educated
portions of the population which experiment with other positions most
frequently. Only about half as many persons of the grade school level ever
depart from the one position which they consider most natural. We have
pointed out (Chapter 10) that other positions are, from any biologic stand-
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
579
point, more natural, and that the standardization of a particular position
in our society is the product of cultural forces which more often control the
behavior of lower levels, less often of upper levels.
The incidences and frequencies with which variant positions are em-
ployed are shown in Table 95, where it will be observed that the second
most common position is the one in which the female is above, facing the
male; and among most persons who have used it, this position is found to
be the one which most often results in orgasm for the female. Sitting po-
sitions, standing positions, and rear entrance into the vagina as the female
lies face down or kneels are much rarer in American patterns. Variety in
coital position is regularly suggested by marriage manuals, but once again
it is the male who is most often interested in experimenting.
Anal Eroticism. There are some individuals for whom anal stimulation
is definitely erotic, and there are a few who may be brought to orgasm by
such stimulation.
The mechanisms involved in such responses are the same as those which
account for erotic response to oral, breast, or genital stimulation, and there
is no need for special theories to explain anal reactions. It would appear,
however, that there is considerable variation in these reactions, probably
due to differences in the nerve supply in different individuals, as well as to
considerable differences in psychologic conditioning on this point. There
is some anal play in some of the marital histories, usually as an additional
source of stimulation during vaginal coitus; and there is an occasional in-
stance of anal coitus. However, anal activity in the heterosexual is not
frequent enough to make it possible to determine the incidence of indi-
viduals who are specifically responsive to such stimulation. Among males
who have been stimulated anally in the homosexual, there are only a few
who are particularly aroused, and only an occasional individual who is
brought to orgasm by such techniques.
Speed of Male Orgasm. There may be a considerable amount of inter-
course which is had without orgasm for the female, and some males may
fail to reach orgasm in pre-marital or extra-marital coitus or m some other
types of sexual activity; but failures to achieve climax are almost never
found among married males in intercourse with their wives.
Throughout the population it is customary for the male to reach a single
orgasm and not to attempt to continue intercourse beyond that point. Ex-
ceptions are found chiefly among younger married males who are still in
their teens. At that age 15 per cent of the population is capable of experi-
encing two or more ejaculations during a limited period of time and during
continuous erotic activity (Table 48). The number of males who are capable
of such multiple orgasm decreases with advancing age. Not more than 7
per cent remain so capable by age 35.
580
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
At lower educational levels, it is usual for the male to try to achieve an
orgasm as soon as possible after effecting genital union. Upper level males
more often attempt to delay orgasm. For perhaps three-quarters of all
males, orgasm is reached within two minutes after the initiation of the
sexual relation, and for a not inconsiderable number of males the climax
may be reached within less than a minute or even within ten or twenty
seconds after coital entrance. Occasionally a male may become so stimu-
lated psychically or through physical petting that he ejaculates before he
has effected genital union.
This quick performance of the typical male may be most unsatisfactory
to a wife who is inhibited or natively low in response, as many wives are;
and such disparities in the speed of male and female response are frequent
sources of marital conflict, especially among upper social levels where the
female is most restrained in her behavior. Nevertheless, the idea that the
male who responds quickly in a sexual relation is neurotic or otherwise
pathologically involved is, in most cases, not justified scientifically. There
are clinicians who insist that ejaculation should be considered premature if
a male is incapable of delaying until the female is ready to reach orgasm.
Considering the many upper level females who are so adversely conditioned
to sexual situations that they may require ten to fifteen minutes of the
most careful stimulation to bring them to climax, and considering the fair
number of females who never come to climax in their whole lives, it is, of
course, demanding that the male be quite abnormal in his ability to pro-
long sexual activity without ejaculation if he is required to match the fe-
male partner.
Interpretations of human behavior would benefit if there were a more
general understanding of basic mammahan behavior. On the present issue,
for instance, it is to be emphasized that in many species of mammals the
male ejaculates almost instantly upon intromission, and that this is true of
man’s closest relatives among the primates. Students of sexual activity
among chimpanzees, for instance, report that ten to twenty seconds is all
the time which is ordinarily needed to effect ejaculation in that species. Far
from being abnormal, the human male who is quick in his sexual response
is quite normal among the mammals, and usual in his own species. It is
curious that the term “impotence” should have ever been applied to such
rapid response. It would be diflBcult to find another situation in which an
individual who was quick and intense in his responses was labeled anything
but superior, and that in most instances is exactly what the rapidly ejacu-
lating male probably is, however inconvenient and unfortunate his quaU-
ties may be from the standpoint of the wife in the relationship.
A portion of the upper level males do deliberately learn to delay ejacu-
latiouj and it is probable that most males could learn to control urethral
MARITAL INTERCOURSE
581
convulsions, primarily through a tightening of anal muscles, so they could
prolong sexual activity before orgasm. But it is only a portion of the male
population that would consider the acquirement of such an ability as a
desirable substitute for direct and rapidly elfected intercourse.
In the female, variations in the speed with which orgasm is achieved are
much greater than in the male. These variations in the female will be con-
sidered in a later volume.
Nudity. It may again be noted that 90 per cent of the upper level males
have intercourse without clothing (Table 95), and still others would prefer
it so, if circumstances allowed. The female is more often inhibited on this
point than the male, but at upper social levels she usually comes to accept
this as the normal accompaniment of coitus. Not more than 43 per cent of
the grade school level ever has intercourse without clothing, for nudity is
more commonly taboo at those levels. There is evidence (Table 95) that
nudity has been accepted by upper level groups more freely within more
recent generations. This is one point in human sexual behavior to which ar-
guments as to what is natural and what is unnatural have never been ap-
plied, for there can be no question of the fact that intercourse without
clothing is biologically normal, and that the custom of having intercourse
with clothing is a distinctly cultural acquirement. But the upper social
level returns to what is biologically normal behavior only after a consid-
erable rationalization and a reasoned break with the mores.
Preferences for Light or Dark. Among married partners, there may be
considerable differences in preferences for having intercourse in full light,
in subdued light, or in the dark. In general, more males prefer to have in-
tercourse in the light, and more females prefer it in the dark. Such differ-
ences may be ascribed to different levels of “modesty” in the two sexes,
but the basic explanation probably lies much deeper. These preferences for
Ught or dark are closely correlated with differences between males and fe-
males in the erotic significances of objects that are visually observed.
Most males, particularly in upper segments of the population, are defi-
nitely aroused upon seeing things that are associated with sex, and most
females are not so aroused. To have intercourse in the light increases the
sources of erotic stimulation for most males, and means very little erotically
to most females. In consequence, moral considerations of the sort that are
associated with modesty may very well control the female in her behavior,
but they do not mean so much to the male. It is probable that these differ-
ences between the sexes are, again, dependent upon basic differences in the
neural organizations which are involved in sexual responses (Beach? 1947).
These matters must have more elaborate consideration in a later volume
on the female, and always the nature of the patterns that are basic among
Chapter 19
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
In the history of most human cultures, extra-marital intercourse has
more often been a matter for regulation than has intercourse before mar-
riage. Frequently this has taken the form of denying the married female
intercourse with anyone except her husband; less often it has included a
restriction of the male’s right to have intercourse outside of his home.
While various issues have been involved, such regulations have been par-
ticularly concerned with the property rights which the male has had in
his wife, and there is no question that the extra-marital activities of the
female became objects of concern in such early codes as the Babylonian
(Harper 1904), Hittite (Barton 1925), Assyrian (Barton 1925), Jewish
(Bible, Talmud), and others, because of these property rights, rather than
because moral issues were recognized.
In so-called primitive groups in various parts of the world today much
the same distinctions are made between intercourse before and after mar-
riage, and between the male’s right and the female’s right to have such re-
lations (Malinowski 1929, Hartland 1931, Thurnwald 1931, Wissler 1922,
Fortune 1932, Murdock 1934, Blackwood 1935, Linton 1936, Lips 1938,
Reichard 1938, Mead 1939, Schapera 1941, Chappie and Coon 1942, Bryk
1944, Ford 1945). Similar distinctions have been made throughout the
history of Western European civilization, and the rights of the male in the
female who is married to him have been a basic part of English and
American law. It is only within the last few decades that material changes
have been effected in this country in legal viewpoints on the relationship
of the husband and wife.
In line with these ancient distinctions, there are still various segments of
our population in this country today which more or less freely accept pre-
marital relations, while objecting strenuously to extra-marital intercourse.
In fact it may be said that there is no segment of our American population
which, as a whole, really accepts extra-marital activities in anything like
the way that masturbation is accepted at upper social levels, or in the way
that pre-marital intercourse is accepted at lower social levels. In some seg-
ments of the population, relatively little attention is paid to the pre-marital
intercourse which occurs among young people; but at all social levels, ex-
tra-marital intercourse is a subject for gossip — often malicious gossip—
often for peremptory and outraged community reaction, and quite often
for legal penalties. The offended spouse who takes the law into his or her
583
584
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
own hands, and assaults and even murders the competitor in the sexual
relation, is, in many parts of the country today, likely to be backed by a
certain amount of public sympathy. Juries are loath to convict in such
cases. It does not alter the fact that society knows that extra-marital inter-
course does occur, and that it occurs with some frequency; and it seems not
to matter that it is generally known that such intercourse usually goes un-
punished. Society is still outraged when confronted with the specific case
on which it is challenged to pass judgment.
These social attitudes are particularly interesting in view of the fact that
a considerable proportion of those who react most violently against the
known instances of extra-marital relations, may have similar experience in
their own histories. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the males in the Terman
study (Terman 1938) admitted that they wished on occasion to have extra-
marital intercourse, and a similarly high proportion of the males in our
present study have expressed the same desire. Furthermore, many of them
actually have such extra-marital relations. The pretense that these persons
make in defending the codes clearly indicates a conflict in their own minds
concerning the social significance of such relations. If our society is ever to
act more intelligently on these matters, it will need more factual data. Even
the scant data that we can offer here may prove of some significance.
REFERENCES
Specific material on the occurrence of extra-marital intercourse in vari-
ous age groups and in various social divisions of the population, has al-
ready been given in tables and charts, and in earlier discussions in the
present volume, as follows:
PAGE TABLE HGURE NATURE OF DATA
248, 257- 54, 64 71-76 Age, marital status, and non-marital intercourse with com-
259, 281- pamons
285
250-253, 55, 65 77-82 Age, marital status, and intercourse with prostitutes
281-289
348, 354 85 103 Total extra-marital intercourse as related to social level
350, 383 86 Extra-marital intercourse with companions, and social level
351-354 87 Intercourse with prostitutes, as related to educational level
456 120 Total non-marital intercourse and rural-urban background
480-481 129 Total extra-marital intercourse and religious background
382, 489, 97 127, Extra-marital intercourse as part of the total sexual outlet
492-493 131-133
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
We have found a great many persons who would like to know how many
males have extra-marital intercourse. Obviously this considerable interest
depends upon the fact that most of the married males who ask the question
have already had such experience, or would like to have it if they could
reconcile it with their consciences and if it could be managed without in-
volving them in legal difficulties or pubhc scandal.
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
585
At the same time, this considerable interest also indicates that many in-
dividuals fear that their extra-marital histories may become known. In
consequence, it has been peculiarly difficult, in the present study, to secure
anything like adequate data on this aspect of human sexual activity. There
is probably nothing in the histories of older married males who belong to
better educational and social levels that has more often been responsible
for their refusal to contribute to the present research. Many of the persons
who have contributed only after some months or years of refusal to do so,
prove to have nothing in their histories that would explain their original
hesitancy except their extra-marital intercourse. Even those who have con-
tributed more readily have probably covered up on this more often than
on any other single item. We have reason for believing that most of the
persons who have criticized the adequacy of the present study, on the
ground that they were able to go through a history “without telling every-
thing,” were individuals who failed to record their own extra-marital ex-
perience. Considering that the legal penalties for such sexual activity are
rarely enforced, and that most males feel that such activity is highly de-
sirable and not exactly wrong, it is particularly interesting to observe this
considerable disturbance over the issue. Only the fear of the social (as op-
posed to the legal) consequences can explain this reticence about extra-
marital sexual performance.
It has so far been impossible to secure hundred percent samples from
men of the type that belongs to business organizations, business executive
groups, and service clubs; and we have every reason for believing that
extra-marital intercourse is the source of the hesitance of many of the in-
dividuals in such groups to cooperate. Consequently, the incidence and
frequency figures which are given here must represent the absolute mini-
mum, and it is not at all improbable that the actuality may lie 10 to 20
per cent above the figures now given.
Hamilton (1929) found 28 per cent of his hundred men with records of
extra-marital intercourse. His figure would have been higher if he had dealt
with older men. In the present study, something over a third (27% to 37%)
of the married males in each of the five-year age periods have admitted
some experience in extra-marital intercourse (Table 64, Figure 73). Since
these are active incidence data, the accumulative figure must amount to
something more than that. Because of the inadequacy of the record it has
been impossible to construct accumulative incidence curves by the usual
techniques (Chapter 3), and we can only estimate from these active inci-
dence figures.
On the basis of these active data, and allowing for the cover-up that has
been involved, it is probably safe to suggest that about half of all the mar-
ried males have intercourse with women other than their wives, at some
time while they are married.
AGE GROUP * 21-25
EOUC LEVEL 0-8
Figure 152. Total extra-marital intercourse: individual variation in frequencies,
at ages 21-25 and 26-30, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has extra-marital intercourse
with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
586
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
587
About 40 per cent of the high school and college males have admitted
extra-marital relations (Tables 85, 86). For the grade school group, a higher
percentage of the younger males have given such records, but only a smaller
percentage (19%) of the older males. There are several possible explana-
tions of this discrepancy, but there is so much likelihood of cover-up here
that the question cannot be resolved at this time.
The most striking thing about the occurrence of extra-marital intercourse
is the fact that the highest incidences for the lower social levels occur at the
younger ages, and that the number of persons involved steadily decreases
with advancing age (Table 85). Lower level males who were married in the
late teens have given a record of extra-marital intercourse in 45 per cent of
the cases, whereas not more than 27 per cent is actively involved by age 40
and not more than 19 per cent by age 50. In striking contrast, the lowest
incidences of extra-marital intercourse among males of the college level
are to be found in the youngest age groups, where not more than 15 to 20
per cent is involved, and the incidence increases steadily until about 27
per cent is having extra-marital relations by age 50.
Similarly, the highest frequencies of extra-marital intercourse are to be
found among the younger males of the lower educational levels, but the
frequencies drop steadily with advancing age (Tables 85, 97). Between 16
and 20, males of the lower educational level who are actually involved in
extra-marital intercourse average such contacts more than once (1.2) per
week; but by age 55 the frequencies have dropped to hardly more than once
in two weeks (0.6 per week). On the other hand, college males of the active
population begin with frequencies of a little more than once in two or three
weeks between the ages of 16 and 30, but finally arrive at frequencies that
are nearer once a week by the time they are 50.
We have previously suggested (Chapters 10, 18) possible explanations for
these diverse patterns in the extra-marital intercourse of different social
levels, of which explanations the most likely is the fact that lower level
males have an abundance of pre-marital intercourse, and there is some
carry-over of that type of promiscuity after marriage. On the other hand,
upper level individuals are the ones with the most restrained pre-marital
histories, and they lose that restraint only gradually and do not so often
embark on extra-marital relations until later years. We cannot explain why
there should be a cessation of extra-marital activity among so many older
males of the lower level. It cannot be entirely due to their generally poorer
physical condition at older ages, for it is the percent of their total outlet
from extra-marital relations which has dropped, from an original of 12 per
cent to 6 per cent. Meanwhile, among males of the college level, the percent
of the total outlet which is derived from extra-marital intercourse has in-
creased from an original 3 per cent in the earlier years to 14 per cent by age
50 (Table 97).
588
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Between 16 and 20, married males of the grade school level have 10.6
times as much extra-marital intercourse as males of the college level. To
make another comparison, married males of occupational classes 2 and 3
(the laborers and semi-skilled workmen) have 16.7 times as much extra-
marital intercourse during their late teens as rhales of occupational class 7
(the future professional group).
For most males, at every social level, extra-marital intercourse is usually
sporadic, occurring on an occasion or two with this female, a few times with
the next partner, not happening again for some months or a year or two,
but then occurring several times or every night for a week or even for a
month or more, after which that particular affair is abruptly stopped. The
averaged data may show mean frequencies of once a week or two, but the
whole of the year’s total is likely to have been accumulated on a single trip
or in a few weeks of the summer vacation. There are extreme instances of
younger males whose orgasms, achieved in extra-marital relations, have
averaged as many as eighteen per week for periods of as long as five years;
but these are unusual cases. Lower level males are the ones who are most
likely to have more regularly distributed experience, often with some vari-
ety of females. Among males of the college level extra-marital relations
are almost always infrequent, often with not more than one or two or a
very few partners in all of their lives, and usually with a single partner over
a period of some time — in some cases for a number of years.
Extra-marital intercourse occasionally accounts for a fair portion of the
outlet of the married males of certain segments of the population. It ac-
counts for 1 1 per cent of the outlet of married males of the grade school
level during their late teens (Table 86). But more often it is a smaller part
of the total picture. It ultimately accounts for something between 5 and 10
per cent of the total orgasms of all the married males in the population
(Table 64).
Prostitutes supply something between 8 and 15 per cent of all extra-
marital intercourse (Chapter 20). Obviously, most of the extra-marital ac-
tivities are had with companions. For lower level males, these may be semi-
professional pick-ups, but are often married women of their own class. For
the upper level males, the contacts may be had with females of any social
level, but many of them are had with their own social level.
Extra-marital intercourse occurs most frequently among males who live
in cities or towns; less frequently in rural populations (Table 120). At the
grade school level, the number of urban males involved may be 20 to 60 per
cent higher than the number of rural males who are having extra-marital
experience, and the frequencies in this lower educational level are higher
among urban males, especially in the early twenties. Among the college-
bred males, the city-raised individuals are involved two or three times as
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
589
often as the rural males, but the frequencies seem to be higher in the rural
group.
To judge from those few groups on which religious data are available
(Table 129), extra-marital intercourse seems to occur much more frequently
among those who are less actively concerned with the church, and much
less frequently among males who are devoutly religious. The differences
between devout and inactive members of any religious group are, however,
nowhere near so great as the differences between social levels. The com-
munity acceptance or non-acceptance of extra-marital intercourse is much
more effective than the immediate restraints provided by the present-day
religious organization. But since the sex mores originated in religious codes
(Chapter 13), it is, in the last analysis, the church which is the origin of the
restrictions on extra-marital intercourse.
RELATION TO OTHER OUTLETS
There seems to be no question but that the human male would be pro-
miscuous in his choice of sexual partners throughout the whole of his life
if there were no social restrictions. This is the history of his anthropoid an-
cestors, and this is the history of unrestrained human males everywhere.
The human male almost invariably becomes promiscuous as soon as he be-
comes involved in sexual relations that are outside of the law. This is true
to a degree in pre-marital and in extra-marital intercourse, and it is true
of those who are most involved in homosexual activities.
The human female is much less interested in a variety of partners. This
is true in her pre-marital and extra-marital histories and, again, it is strik-
ingly true in her homosexual relations. The easy explanation that the fe-
male is basically more moral, and the male less moral, does not suffice.
These differences must be more dependent upon differences in the sexual
responsiveness of males and females, and particularly upon differences in
the conditionability of the two sexes. The average female is not aroused by
nearly so many stimuli as is the male, and finds much less sexual excite-
ment in psychic associations or in any sensory stimulations outside of the
purely tactile. These differences are similar to those found between males
and females in the lower mammals, and there is a good deal of evidence
(Beach 1947) that they depend upon differences in the nervous organization
on which sexual behavior depends.
In practical terms this means that there are a great many human females
who find it incomprehensible that so many human males should look for
sexual relations with women other than their wives. On the other hand,
most males see some force to the argument that variety is attractive in any
sort of situation, whether it concerns the literature that one reads, the music
that one hears, the recreation in which one engages, the food which one
eats, the type of sex relations which one has, or the sexual partners with
590
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
whom the relations are had. This philosophy has been frankly expressed by
a considerable number of males who have contributed histories to the
present study, even though some of them immediately add that for moral
and social reasons they have not had extra-marital intercourse and will not
have extra-marital intercourse, however much they may desire it.
There is, of course, a smaller portion of the females, the number of
whom we have not yet calculated, who find variety in sexual relations as
interesting as any of the males find it.
Extra-marital intercourse, then, may occur irrespective of the availability
or frequency of other sorts of sexual outlet, and without respect to the satis-
factory or unsatisfactory nature of the sexual relations at home. Most of
the male’s extra-marital activity is undoubtedly a product of his interest in
a variety of experience. On the other hand, there is certainly a portion of
his extra-marital intercourse which is the product of unsatisfactory rela-
tions with his wife. When she fails to be interested in sexual relations with
her husband, when she is less interested than he is, when she refuses to have
intercourse as frequently as he would like it, when she refuses to allow the
variety in pre-coital techniques that the male would like to have, or when
she accedes to such techniques without evidencing an interest equal to that
of the male, she is encouraging him to find extra-marital relations. The
wife’s refusal of mouth-genital contacts (Chapter 18) with her husband is
a factor in sending some males elsewhere for such experience.
All of these same factors may, of course, operate to lead a sexually re-
sponsive wife into extra-marital intercourse; but that is not so often true
as is the reverse situation.
It is not yet clear how much relation there is between experience in pre-
marital intercourse and experience in extra-marital intercourse. Exact cor-
relations will have to be published later. Certainly^ there are histories of
males who had an abundance of pre-marital intercourse and who never
have any sort of extra-marital intercourse; and there are histories of males
who had no pre-marital intercourse but who begin a considerable amount
of extra-marital intercourse as soon as they are married. There are histories
of males who are examples of every other type of relationship between these
two phenomena. A multiplicity of factors must be involved, and it will take
careful analyses to identify what correlations may exist.
It is true, as just noted, that males of the lower educational levels are the
ones who have the most pre-marital intercourse, and they are the ones who
have the most extra-marital intercourse in early marriage. And it is also
true that the college level males have the least pre-marital intercourse, and
the least extra-marital intercourse in early marriage. But the correlations
he in the basic attitudes of the social groups which are involved, and they
are not a direct effect of pre-marital behavior on extra-marital patterns.
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
591
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
Throughout the literature of the world, extra-marital intercourse has
provided an overwhelming abundance of material for biography, drama,
fiction, and serious essay. There is probably no sexual theme that has ap-
peared more often in the world’s literature, both great and small, in all ages
and among all nations. Most often the relationships have been portrayed
as highly desirable, intrinsically sinful, certain of obstruction by a con-
spiracy of social forces, and doomed to tragic failure which becomes most
tragic when it appears that the illicit relations would have been the higher
destiny if social conventions had not interfered. That extra-marital rela-
tions are generally desired has, evidently, been known to all men through-
out the ages. That they seldom work out in society as it is constructed has
been at least believed by the writers of all ages.
Current sociologic, clinical, sex educational, and religious literature re-
peats, for the most part, this conviction that extra-marital intercourse al-
ways does damage to marriages (e.g,, Armitage 1913, Forel 1922, Meyer
1927, Eddy 1928, Hamilton 1929, Lindsey and Evans 1929, Amer. Soc.
Hyg. Assoc. 1930, Rice 1933, 1946, Ruland and Rattler 1934, Robinson
1936, Ellis 1936, Clark 1937, Benjamin 1939, Popenoe 1943, Rockwood
and Ford 1945, Seward 1946). In this literature, the judgment against extra-
marital intercourse is alihost uniform. Only an occasional writer suggests
that there may be values in such experience which can be utilized for human
needs.
The public record is replete with instances of marital infidelities which
have wrecked homes and destroyed individuals. The counselor and clin-
ician see a stream of cases in which marital diflaculties turn around the
extra-marital activities of the husband or of the wife. The scientist can add
httle that is new in the record of such cases, and he cannot minimize their
significance in our social organization.
There is, nevertheless, room for a scientific examination of the real bases
of the difficulties that develop out of extra-marital sexual relations. Is it
inevitable that extra-marital intercourse should lead to difficulties, or do
the difficulties originate in the mores of the group? What proportion of all
extra-marital relations lead to marital disturbances? The publicly known
clinical cases may, like chnical cases of other sorts, represent only the dis-
turbed segment of the group that has extra-marital experience, and may
not adequately represent the situation as a whole. Do extra-marital rela-
tions ever contribute to the effectiveness of a marriage? What effect does
such activity ultimately have upon the personalities of those who are in-
volved? Certainly society may be concerned with securing objective an-
swers to these questions.
In gathering the thousands of married histories which have entered into
the present study, we have begun the accumulation of a considerable body
20
592
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
of material on the factors that contribute to marital stability and, con-
versely, to marital discord. With the further continuation of this study,
analyses of these data will be undertaken in a later publication. For the
present, only fragments can be offered that bear on the social significance
of extra-marital intercourse.
Certainly many different sorts of situations are involved. There are many
factors that may affect the outcome of the extra-marital activities, and the
record is much more diverse than has generally been believed.
At lower social levels, where the most extra-marital intercourse occurs,
wives rather generally expect their husbands to “step out,” and some of
them rather frankly admit that they do not object provided they do not
learn of the specific affairs which are carried on. Nevertheless, extra-
marital intercourse is the sexual factor which is most often involved in
marital discord at that level. Diversion of the interest and affection of the
spouse who has the extra-marital relation results in jealousy and bitter
hatreds, and these lead to endless quarrels and vicious fighting with, oc-
casionally, murder as the outcome. A portion of the non-support which is
so common at this level is the result of the male’s distraction by females
other than his wife. Desertions, separations, and divorce, in this group,
are frequently the outcome of these extra-marital attractions.
Nevertheless, a portion of the extra-marital intercourse at lower levels
is had without apparent interference with the affection between the spouses,
or with the stability of the marriage. The data are as yet insufficient to war-
rant a statistical measure of the frequency of each type of situation.
Extra-marital intercourse is less often accepted in middle class groups.
While it may not involve as much quarreling and fighting, it often leads to
divorce. How often it occurs without causing trouble is a matter that still
needs to be determined.
The extra-marital intercourse of the upper social level much less often
causes difficulty, because it is usually unknown to anyone except the two
persons immediately involved. On occasion it does become known and
causes marital discord and divorce. On the other hand, it is sometimes had
with the knowledge of the other spouse who may even aid and encourage
the arrangement. Such a frank and open acceptance of the partner’s non-
marital sexual relations is practically unknown at lower social levels, and
at all levels is a source of astonishment to persons with strict moral codes.
Wives, at every social level, more often accept the non-marital activities
of their husbands. Husbands are much less inclined to accept the non-
marital activities of their wives. It has been so since the dawn of history.
The biology and psychology of this difference need more careful analysis
than the available data yet afford.
EXTRA-MARITAL INTERCOURSE
593
The significance of extra-marital intercourse may more often depend
upon the attitudes of the spouses and of the social groups to which they
belong, than upon the effect of the actual intercourse upon the participat-
ing individuals. Few difficulties develop out of extra-marital intercourse
when the relationships are unknown to anyone but the two persons having
the intercourse. There are histories of long-continued extra-marital rela-
tionships which seem to have interfered in no way with the marriages, until
the other partner or partners discovered the infidelity. Then they immedi-
ately filed suit for divorce.
Extra-marital intercourse most often causes difficulty when it involves
emotional and affectional relations with the new partner who takes prec-
edence over the spouse. Conversely, the extra-marital contacts most often
avoid trouble when they are social alfairs without too much emotional con-
tent. There are a few males who can carry on emotional relationships with
two or more partners simultaneously, but there are many more who do not
succeed at such an arrangement.
There are some individuals among our histories whose sexual adjust-
ments in marriage have undoubtedly been helped by extra-marital experi-
ence. Sometimes this depends upon their learning new techniques or ac-
quiring new attitudes which reduce inhibitions in their marital relations.
Some women who have had difficulty in reaching orgasm with their hus-
bands, find the novelty of the situation with another male stimulating them
to their first orgasm; and with this as a background they make better ad-
justments with their husbands. Extra-marital intercourse has had the effect
of convincing some males that the relationships with their wives were more
satisfactory than they had realized.
There are a few cases of married couples who have ceased sexual rela-
tions with each other, but who maintain happy and socially successful
homes while each of the partners finds the whole of his or her sexual outlet
outside of marriage. There are cases of males who are totally impotent with
their wives, although they are successful in extra-marital relations which
they may carry on throughout the whole of their marital histories, while
the wives similarly maintain Hfelong relations with men other than their
husbands.
In both lower and upper level histories, there are cases where the children
in the home are the offspring of the extra-marital relationships. Both
spouses may accept the situation, and it may cause no difficulty as long as
the neighbors and the law are unaware of the fact.
The histories of persons born and raised in Continental Europe usually
involve a great deal of extra-marital intercourse, and such histories should
be carefully studied in any scientific analysis of the outcome of such rela-
tions.
594
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
By and large, it is not a large proportion of the population that accepts
an unlimited amount of extra-marital intercourse. Even those individuals
who publicly defend the desirability of such relationships usually have nota-
bly few experiences in their actual histories. Whether this is a tribute to the
effectiveness of the mores in controlling the behavior of persons who think
that they are emancipated, or whether it is evidence that extra-marital in-
tercourse entails difficulties that they did not anticipate, or whether it
merely indicates that successful extra-marital relations are carried on with
difficulty under our present social organization, it is impossible to say at
this time. Certainly the psychologist and social scientist, and society in
general, need a great many more specific data before there can be any final
evaluation of the effects of extra-marital intercourse on individuals and on
their relations to their homes and to the society of which they are a part.
Chapter 20
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
By sociological and legal definition a prostitute is an individual who
indiscriminately provides sexual relations in return for money payments.
The practical interpretation of the term emphasizes the fact that a prostitute
accepts a sexual relation with almost anyone, stranger or acquaintance, who
offers to pay, and that the payment is in currency rather than in goods
or services.
It is impractical to confine the term to those persons who derive their
whole living or any particular part of it from prostitution, for a very high
number of the females who engage in such activities do so as a minor
adjunct to their regular occupations. The person who is specifically paid
for a single sexual relation is, for that particular occasion, a prostitute.
The definition requires that payment for a sexual relation be in currency
and be made for each particular contact. If the term prostitution were to
be applied to all sexual acts for which either participant received some
valuable consideration, it would be impossible to draw a line between the
most obvious sort of commercialized prostitution and the relationships of
every husband and wife. The girl who has to be taken to dinner or to an
evening’s entertainment before she will agree to intercourse with her boy
friend or fiance is engaged in a more commercialized relationship than she
would like to admit. The gifts that are bestowed by males of all social
levels upon girls with whom they keep company may be cloaked with fine
sentiments, but they are, to a considerable degree, payment for the inter-
course that is expected.
At lower social levels there is often an elaborate arrangement by which
the girl in the pre-marital or extra-marital relation is provided with stock-
ings, dresses, fur coats, and other materials of value, for sexual relation^
which would be immediately stopped if the male failed to provide such
gifts as the girl considered commensurate with her contribution, and with
his ability to pay. In some lower levels it is quite customary for the male
to share his pay envelope with the girl from whom he is securing regular
intercourse, and at all social levels there may be some sort of regular
contribution to the support of the girl’s home, if the sexual relation is
continued over any period of time. It is difficult to characterize such rela-
tionships as prostitution. It is even more misleading to apply the term to the
case of the wife who demands payment in coin of the realm each time she
engages in intercourse with her husband (and such arrangements are
595
596
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
recorded in the histories). But it is only rarely that there is any difficulty
in recognizing the situations that do deserve to be called prostitution.
There are four types of prostitution. The commonest involves hetero-
sexual relations for which the female is paid. This is the type of prostitution
with which the present chapter is concerned.
There is, however, a homosexual prostitution among males who provide
sexual relations for other males; and such homosexual prostitutes are, in
many large cities, not far inferior in number to the females who are engaged
in heterosexual prostitution. Male homosexual prostitutes less often derive
their main income from such activities, and less often engage in prostitu-
tion for any long period of years.
There is also a heterosexual prostitution in which females pay males for
sexual relations, but this situation is not common.
The rarest of the four types of prostitution involves females who are
paid for the homosexual relations with which they supply other females.
Any extensive treatment of the subject should cover all four types of
prostitution, and should analyze the basic elements in all of them. But
the present chapter is not concerned with prostitution as a social institu-
tion, nor with prostitutes. Those subjects will provide the material for a
later volume. The present chapter deals only with the behavior of the males
who pay female prostitutes for a portion of their sexual outlet.
REFERENCES
Data on the part which intercourse with prostitutes plays in the sexual
hves of males in various segments of the population have already been
detailed in this volume in tables and charts, and in discussions in the text,
as follows :
PAGE
67, 68
TABLE
HGURE
NATURE OF DATA
Items on prostitution covered in interview
116,117
12
14
Calculation of accumulative incidence curve
on coitus with prostitutes
234
49
Range of variation in intercourse with pros-
titutes
251,253
55, 65
77-82
Age and marital status affecting intercourse
with prostitutes
353-357
87, 113, 115
102, 106, 154
Relation of social level to intercourse with
prostitutes
404,413
100, 104, 105
113,114,122, 123
Comparisons of two generations, in inter-
course with prostitutes
455
121
125
Rural-urban backgrounds and intercourse
with prostitutes
488-493
96, 97
127-133
Portion of total outlet derived from pros-
titutes
597-600
138
153, 154
Accumulative incidence of intercourse with
prostitutes
601-603
155
Individual variation in frequencies of inter-
course with prostitutes
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
597
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
There is a widespread opinion, both in the public at large and among
social scientists, that prostitution provides the major source of non-marital
sexual outlet for most of the male population. However, though it may
play a more important part in the sexual patterns of some other countries,
in the United States the number of males who go to prostitutes is not so
high as is generally believed, and the frequencies with which they go are
very much lower than almost anyone has realized.
There have been very few attempts to obtain statistical data on the
incidence of contacts with prostitutes (Eddy 1928, Taylor 1934, Reitman
in Robinson 1936, Bromley and Britten 1938), and these data have been
inadequate. Similarly, it would appear that the frequencies of such contacts
in any large segment of the population have never been investigated
(although there are reports on isolated cases), and this is astounding in
view of the tremendous interest that so many agencies have had in con-
trolling the frequencies of such contacts. Law enforcement officers, the
reports of vice societies, popular sex books and pamphlets, novels, and
even the best of the literature written in this country have made prostitu-
tion appear much more significant than it actually proves to be in the
total sexual life of the American male.
We find that about 69 per cent of the total white male population ulti-
mately has some experience with prostitutes (Table 138, Figure 153).
Many of these males, however, never have more than a single experience
or two, and not more than 15 or 20 per cent of them ever have such rela-
tions more often than a few times a year, over as much as a five-year period
in their lives. This means that there is nearly a third (31%) of the popula-
tion that never has any sort of sexual contact with prostitutes. There are,
of course, a few males who never have heterosexual relations except with
prostitutes, but this happens very rarely.
Ultimately, something between 3.5 and 4 per cent of the total outlet of
the total male population (single and married) is drawn from relations
with female prostitutes (Tables 96, 97, Figures 126, 127). This is not a
very large portion of the total outlet. Nocturnal emissions are more im-
portant (Chapter 15), and the homosexual accounts for two or three times
as many orgasms among males (Chapter21). Only petting to climax (Chap-
ter 16) and animal intercourse (Chapter 22) account for smaller parts of
the outlet. In the college group, where intercourse with prostitutes is at its
lowest, the homosexual may provide ten to twenty times as much of the
outlet as prostitutes do. Many groups interested in controlling non-marital
sexual activities have centered their attention upon prostitution when, in
actuality, it accounts for less than a tenth of the non-marital outlet of the
male population. Intercourse with prostitutes is much more important
socially than it is as a means of outlet.
598
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Intercourse with Prostitutes: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
1
TOTAL POPULATION
U. S. CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13 +
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
3995
0.0
685
0.0
494
0.0
2816
0.0
9
3995
0.0
685
0.0
494
0.0
2816
0.0
10
3995
0.0
685
0.0 1
494
0.0
2816
0.0
11
3994
0.0
684
0.1
494
0.0
2816
0.0
12
3994
0.3
684
0.6
494
0.2
2816
0.0
13
3994
0.7
684
1.0
494
0.6
2816
O.l
14
3991
2.6
681
3.5
494
2.6
2816
0.8
15
3985
7.4
675
7.7
494
8.5
2816
2.3
16
3964
16.1
658
18.4
491
17.7
2815
4.8
17
3905
26 0
621
28.8
471
28.9
2813
9.1
18
3767
36.7
594
40.6
436
40.6
2737
13.6
19
3536
42.1
564
45.6
399
46.6
2573
17.4
20
3231
45.3
536
50.9
357
48.5
2338
20.6
21
2857
48.6
512
54.7
313
52.1
2032
22.2
22
2454
51.4
492
58.3
290
54.5
1672
24.9
23
2137
54.5
476
59.5
264
59.1
1397
25.7
24
1845
55.9
456
61.6
237
60.3
1152
26,6
25
1659
58.6
436
65,1
221
62.9
1002
28.6
26
1515
59.9
424
66.5
207
64.3
884
29.4
27
1379
61.2
409
67.5
196
65.8
774
30.5
28
1273
63.3
395
67.6
179
69.8
699
32.0
29
1164 i
64.0
371
67.7
159
71.1
634
32.0
30
1069
65.5
355
69.6
141
73.0
573
33.2
31
993
66.1
335
70.1
129
73.6
i 529
34.0
32
934
65.9
323
70.9
119
72.3
492
33.7
33
873
66.4
309
71.2
116
73.3
448
33.3
34
819
66.7
300
72.0
107
72.9
412
33.7
35
762
68.0
286
72,7
94
73.4
382
34.6
36
718
70.0
273
74.4
89
76.4
356
35.7
37
656
69.8
255
73.7
78
76.9
323
35.6
38
625
69.6
246
73.6
72
76.4
307
36.2
39
570
68.2
224
72.3
66
74.2
280
36.4
40
521
68.8
204
73.5
60
71.7
257
36.6
41
485
68.9
192
74.0
55
70.9
238
37.0
42
456
68.1
183
73,8
52
69.2
221
35.3
43
409
67.2
167
73.1
50
68.0
192
34.4
•44
379
66.8
154
72.7
177
36.2
45
348
68.7
141
73.0
161
38.5
Table 138. Accumulative incidence data on total intercourse with prostitutes
Covering the life span, including pre-marital, extra-marital, and post-marital histories.
In three educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census
of 1940.
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
599
Among single males, the percentage of the total outlet derived from
contacts with prostitutes increases markedly with age (Table 65, Figure
78), beginning at 3.7 per cent in the late teens, rising to nearly 10 per cent
by age 30, and going still higher for those relatively few males who are
still unmarried in the later years. For married males (Table 65, Figure 78),
hardly more than 1 per cent of the outlet is derived from extra-marital
intercourse with prostitutes, and this lowers the average for all males,
single and married.
Prostitutes provide only about a tenth of the male’s total pre-marital
intercourse: 8.6 per cent between ages 16 and 20, 13.3 per cent between
AGE
Figure 153. Intercourse with prostitutes: accumulative incidence in total U. S.
population
Showing percent of total population that has ever had intercourse with prostitutes
by each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital
status, and corrected for the U. S. Census distribution.
21 and 25, and even more of the pre-marital intercourse of the males who
are still unmarried at later ages (Tables 64, 65). It is to be noted that an
increasing proportion of the extra-marital intercourse comes from prosti-
tutes as the male grows older. This is partly due to his decreasing abihty
to find sexual partners, particularly partners of attractive, younger ages.
It is also due, however, to the fact that the older male finally reaches the
point where he considers it simpler to go to prostitutes than to try to court
and win the favors of a girl who is not a prostitute.
In the same fashion, and for the same reasons, intercourse with prostitutes
supplies an increasing proportion of the outlet of the males who have been
previously married, but who are now widowed, separated from their wives,
or divorced (Table 65, Figure 78).
600
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Among married males, prostitutes provide about 11 per cent of the
extra-marital outlet between ages 16 and 20, over 16 per cent of that outlet
by age 30, and 22 per cent of the extra-marital outlet at age 55 (Tables 64,
65). This apparent increase, however, is not due to any increase in actual
frequencies, but to the fact that the total outlet drops steadily through
the years, while intercourse with prostitutes is maintained with more or
less constant frequencies over a period of several decades.
The incidence and frequency figures vary tremendously for different
segments of the population, and it is misleading to discuss the place of
prostitution in the population as a whole. Contacts with prostitutes are
most frequently had by males of the lowest social levels. By 25 years of
A6E
Figure 154. Intercourse with prostitutes: accumulative incidence in three educa-
^onal levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever had intercourse with prostitutes
by each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital
status.
age, 74 per cent of the males who never went beyond grade school have
had some intercourse with prostitutes (Table 87), while only 54 per cent
of the males of the high school level, and only 28 per cent of the males of
the college level, have had such experience. Among single males of the
group that never goes beyond the eighth grade, as much as 6 per cent of
the total sexual outlet is derived from prostitutes in the late teens, 14.3 per
cent by the late twenties, and 23.4 per cent by the late thirties, if the male
is not yet married by that time (Table 96). Among the boys who go to high
school the figures start at 3 per cent in the late teens and climb to 10.3 per
cent in the middle thirties. For males of the college level less tbap l per
cent of the total sexual outlet is derived from prostitutes in the late teens,
and only 3 per cent in the late twenties. This is one of the most striking
differences between the patterns of college males and the patterns of all
other groups.
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
601
Among all married males, it is never more than 1.7 per cent of the total
sexual outlet which is derived from prostitutes in any particular age period
(Table 97) and, again, it is the married male of the college level who draws
the lowest percentage of his outlet from professional sources.
The actual frequencies of intercourse with prostitutes begin at very
low levels in the early adolescent years, but they do begin there. Law
enforcement officers are especially interested in trying to prevent young
boys from having such relations, and it is very difficult to get a prostitute
to admit that she has ever had relations with any boy under 18. But
nearly 8 per cent of the males who have contributed to the present study
have reported that they had such relations before or by the time they were
15 years of age. Frequencies of contacts steadily rise until^they average
about once in three weeks (0.3 per week) for the total population of un-
married males in their thirties (Table 65, Figure 77). For those males who
actually have such relations, the frequencies start in the earliest adolescent
years at once in four weeks and rise to twice in three weeks (0.6 per week)
by the thirties. If these calculations are broken down by social levels
(Table 87, Figure 102), the active frequencies for those boys who never
go beyond the eighth grade in school start at about once in three weeks and
rise to once in two weeks or twice in three weeks. For the boys who go to
high school but not beyond, the frequencies (of the active population)
start at some lower level and rise to once in four weeks by age 20, once in
three weeks by age 25, and somewhat higher in the later years for the males
who remain unmarried. For the males who belong to the college level,
those who have any intercourse at all with prostitutes average only once
in six to ten weeks, unless they remain unmarried past the age of 25, when
the frequencies rise rather considerably.
Between 16 and 20, males of the grade school level have intercourse with
prostitutes 9 times as often, and males of the high school level have it more
than 4 times as often as males of the college level (Table 87, Figure 102),
By the early thirties, males of the grade school level have intercourse with
prostitutes about 36 times as frequently as males of the college level.
Making the comparisons by occupational classes, the record is that males
of classes 2 and 3 (the laboring group and the semi-skilled workmen) and
possibly class 4 (the skilled workmen) have 5 to 10 times as many contacts
with prostitutes during their late teens as males of occupational class 7
(the future professional group) (Table 113, Figure 102). The differences
become even greater in later years. Public health officials who are inter-
ested in controlling the spread of venereal disease might profitably give
maximum attention to educating the groups which have the most frequent
contacts with prostitutes and with other girls.
For the population taken as a whole, including single and married
males of all social levels and of all ages above adolescence, the mean
Figure 155. Pre-marital intercourse with prostitutes: individual variation in
frequencies, in four age groups, at three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has pre-marital intercourse
with prostitutes with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
602
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
603
average frequency of intercourse with prostitutes is 0.093 per week, which
is a little less than 5 times per year. With this average figure, which has been
very carefully calculated on the basis of all of our available data, it is
possible to estimate the average number of contacts that are being made
with prostitutes in any particular city or state, per week or per year. In-
frequent as such contacts are in relation to the total sexual activity of the
average male, they amount to a good deal in absolute frequencies in any
population as a whole.
In the total U. S. population 34.3 per cent (calculated from U. S. Census
1940) consists of males who are above the age of onset of adolescence and
under the age of impotence and, therefore, eligible for intercourse with
prostitutes. The frequencies of contacts per million of total population
should then total close to 1,659,000 per year. In terms of the town of
100,000 inhabitants, the contacts average about 3,190 per week. If the
police force in such a community fails to make that many arrests each
week for association with prostitutes, this may be taken as a measure of
the difficulty of facing the actuahties of human behavior. With such data,
it should be possible to sense the magnitude of the problem of eliminating
prostitution. And yet contacts with prostitutes, as just noted, represent
only a small part of the non-marital (and therefore largely taboo or illegal)
sexual activity of the community.
In view of the efforts that have been made in the last decade or two to
control heterosexual prostitution, it is important to note that the data
show (Tabic 100, Figures 113, 114) that the percentage of males in each
social level who are frequenting prostitutes today is almost precisely the
same as the percentage which had such experience twenty or more years
ago (Chapter 11). While there are considerable differences in frequencies
for males of the different social levels which may live together in the same
town, there are practically no differences between the males of two genera-
tions which are as far apart as the two world wars.
The frequencies of contacts with prostitutes have, however, been signif-
icantly reduced, undoubtedly as a result of the educational campaigns and
the legal moves which have more recently been made against prostitution.
The present-day male is making such contacts only two-thirds, or even
half, as often as the older generation did (Table 104). In compensation,
however, there has been a deifinite increase in the amount of intercourse
with girls who are not prostitutes, and the totals for pre-marital intercourse
have not been materially changed.
Moreover, prostitution does not now occupy the thinking of males as it
did in past generations. Males of the older generation visited houses of
prostitution, not only in search of intercourse, but on sightseeing trips and
in social groups as well. They were more often involved in the non-sexual
activities that occurred in the established houses, such as drinking, gam-
604
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
bling, etc. Present day prostitution is more often a matter of dealing with
an individual girl who operates on her own. In practically every large city
in the United States, those who are acquainted with conditions can locate
prostitutes easily enough; but since organized houses have been eliminated
in most of these cities, the stranger in town may have considerable difficulty
in making such contacts. It is our impression, which will need more statis-
tical support before it is established, that the number of girls who are now
involved in prostitution is not materially smaller than the number which
was so engaged ten or twenty years ago. Their manner of operation,
however, has been materially changed, and the number of contacts they
make per week has been appreciably reduced.
TECHNIQUES
This is not the place to make any detailed study of the way in which
prostitution is managed, how its contacts are made, and the types of rela-
tions which it offers. It is appropriate in this volume, however, to note
certain situations that arise when persons of diverse social levels, the
prostitute and her client, undertake to have sexual relations together.
Most prostitutes originate in lower social levels, from which they have
acquired lower level patterns of behavior (Chapter 10). These lower level
attitudes still persist even after a girl goes into prostitution. Some of her
trade comes from her own social level, and then her own patterns of coitus
suffice; but a large part of her trade is, as we have seen, from the high
school level, and a smaller but financially very significant part of it comes
from the college level. In their pre-coital and coital techniques, both the
high school and college groups want something that is usually foreign to
the prostitute’s background. For the sake of her trade, she may agree to
such overt activity as these males desire but, interesting to note, she still
would refuse to use such techniques with her husband or boy friend.
Specifically, elaborated pre-coital petting, kissing, oral manipulation of
the breast, and mouth-genital contacts are taboo in the level from which
the girl comes (Chapter 10). The introduction of nudity in intercourse is
often foreign to her previous experience. Variety in coital positions and,
in fact, all techniques which involve anything except simple genital union
may be, in her estimation, perversions, “freakish,” or “queer.” Even the
prostitute who goes furthest in supplying variety for the upper level male,
may never accept such things as normal or right. She may not be partic-
ularly worried about her own behavior — that is a necessary part of the
business — but she does not respect the male who wants such things. There
are, of course, exceptions. A few of the lower level prostitutes consider
that a male should be allowed any sort of sexual activity for which he
pays, and a few prostitutes become erotically interested in the full variety
of activities in which they engage. There are a few who are better educated,
with high school or even college backgrounds ; and there are some who are
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
605
physically energetic, mentally alert, and intelligent. They more readily
accept and provide the variety of techniques which the upper level males
find most satisfactory, and some of these girls may develop long-time rela-
tions which make them full-fiedged mistresses.
The lower level prostitute more often learns to accept the high school or
college male’s desire for nudity during intercourse, and his desire for inter-
course in the light. These things are usual in relations with prostitutes
today, although they were far from being so in past generations. In a
certain number of cases, the prostitute may provide mouth-genital contacts.
The cheaper prostitute restricts each sexual relation to a minimum of
time. This, again, is part of the pattern of her social level and is, of course,
more convenient for her. In the days of established houses, contacts
were often limited to five minutes or less, and extra payment was
demanded for any extension of activity. The educated male’s interest in
protracted relationships which involve social contacts and pre-coital
petting is likely to go unsatisfied with most prostitutes. Only the occasional
girl in the more expensive house of prostitution, or the still more expensive
partner maintained by the financially richer male, has been wdlling to
make a prolonged social performance of each contact.
As a result of the more recent drives against organized prostitution,
many of the better houses have been closed. The poorest houses have been
the ones that have most often survived. As noted previously, most prosti-
tution has become a matter of an individual girl operating on her own.
These girls often have no place to take thomen except to the back alley, to
their own very poor homes, or to the cheap hotels to which they have en-
trance. Consequently, the conditions under which the sex relations are now
had are still less satisfactory to the upper level male than they were in the
older generation. The sexually expert and socially more effective girl who
remains in prostitution operates for very high fees and restricts her contacts
to a very hmited clientele with which she has had long-time acquaintance.
SIGNIFICANCE OF PROSTITUTION
The world’s literature contains hundreds of volumes whose authors
have attempted to assay the social significance of prostitution. For an
activity which contributes no more than this does to the sexual outlet of
the male- population, it is amazing that it should have been given such
widespread consideration. Some of the attention which the subject has
received, and certainly many of the books that have been written about
it, have undoubtedly been inspired by erotic interest; but a major part
of the interest has centered around this question of the social significance
of prostitution. The extent of the attention which the subject still receives
in this country today is, as we have shown, all out of proportion to its
significance in the fives of most males, and this makes one skeptical of
606
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
using the older literature as a source of information on the place of prosti-
tution in past generations and past centuries. Certainly the older accounts
would make it appear that prostitution was much more important in the
life of the male who lived any time between the dawn of history and
World War I than we have evidence of its having been since then.
There has always been a considerable relation between prostitution and
other underworld activities, including gambling, bootlegging, dope
peddling, robbery, and other activities. A very high percentage of the
prostitutes rob their clients whenever the opportunity affords. Often
strong-arm robbery, assault, and occasionally murder are involved. These
activities, more than the sexual relations themselves, have concerned law
enforcement oflBcers and all others who have been interested in main-
taining orderly communities. The relation of prostitution and venereal
disease has supplied the argument most often used in recent decades for
the suppression of organized prostitution (e,g., W. S. Hall 1907, 1909,
Exner 1914, Bigelow 1916, Coppens and Spalding 1921, U. S. Public
Health Service 1921, 1937, Forel 1922, Martindale 1925, Eddy 1928,
Meyer 1929, Dickerson 1930, Weatherhead 1932, Rice 1933, Ruland and
Rattler 1934, Ellis 1936, Robinson in Robinson 1936, Stone and Stone
1937, Haire 1937, Clarke 1938, Rosanoff 1938, Crisp 1939, Kirkendall
1940,*Snow 1941, Bowman 1942, Dickerson 1944, 1946, Koch and Wilbur
1944, Popenoe 1946, McPartland 1947). This is not the place to discuss the
scientific data which are available on these social problems.
Throughout history, there have been few social institutions which have
been objects of as continuous condemnation and concentrated attack as
the institution of heterosexual prostitution; and this undoubtedly reflects
a widespread judgment that there are basic faults in the institution. On the
other hand, prostitution continues to exist, and one may well ask why men
continue to go to prostitutes. It is probable that prostitution is no excep-
tion to the economic laws, and it continues to exist because there is a
sufficient demand for what it offers (see, for instance, Forel 1922, Weather-
head 1932, Ellis 1936, Benjamin 1939, Faris in Hunt 1944, Popenoe 1944,
Sadler and Sadler 1944).
First of all, men go to prostitutes because they have insufficient sexual
outlets in other directions, or because prostitution provides types of sexual
activity which are not so readily available elsewhere. Many men go to
prostitutes to find the variety that sexual experience with a new partner
may offer.* Some men go because they feel that the danger of contracting
venereal disease from a prostitute is actually less than it would be with a
girl who was not in an organized house of prostitution. Some males
experiment with prostitution just to discover what it means. In many cases
some social psychology is involved as groups of males go together to look
for prostitutes.
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
607
At all social levels men go to prostitutes because it is simpler to secure a
sexual partner commercially than it is to secure a sexual partner by court-
ing a girl who would not accept pay. Even at lower social levels, where
most males find it remarkably simple to make frequent contacts with girls
who are not prostitutes, there are still occasions when they desire inter-
course immediately and find it much simpler to obtain it from a prostitute.
As for college-bred males, a great majority of them are utterly ineffective
in securing intercourse from any girl whom they have not dated for long
periods of time and at considerable expense; and in some cases, their only
chance to secure coital experience is with a prostitute. This is, of course,
particularly true if the male is away from home in a strange town.
j Hundreds of males have insisted that intercourse with a prostitute is
cheaper than intercourse with any other girl. The cost of dating a girl,
especially at the upper social level, may mount considerably through the
weeks and months, or even years, that it may take to arrive at the first
intercourse. There are flowers, candy, “coke dates,” dinner engagements,
parties, evening entertainments, moving pictures, theatres, night clubs,
dances, picnics, week-end house parties, car rides, longer trips, and all
sorts of other expensive entertainment to be paid for, and gifts to be made
to the girl on her birthday, at Christmas, and on innumerable other special
occasions. Finally, after all this the girl may break off the whole affair as
soon as she realizes that the male is interested in intercourse. Before the
recent war the average cost of a sexual relation with a prostitute was one to
five dollars. This was less than the cost of a single supper date with a girl
who was not a prostitute; and even at the inflated prices of prostitution
which prevailed during the war, the cost did not amount to more than
many a soldier or sailor was obliged to spend on another girl from whom
he might or might not be able to obtain the intercourse which he wanted.
Men go to prostitutes because they can pay for the sexual relations and
forget other responsibilities, whereas coitus with other girls may involve
them socially and legally beyond anything which they care to undertake.
Men go to prostitutes to obtain types of sexual activity which they are
unable to obtain easily elsewhere. Few prostitutes offer any variety of
sexual techniques, but many of them do provide mouth-genital contacts.
The prostitute offers the readiest source of experience for the sadist or
the masochist, and for persons who have developed associations with non-
sexual objects (fetishes) which have come to have sexual significance for
them because of some contact they have had in the past. Most males who
have participated in sexual activities in groups have found the opportunity
to do so with prostitutes. Nearly all of the opportunity that males have to
observe sexual activity is connected with prostitutes, and such experiences
are in the history of many more persons than is ordinarily realized.
608
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Some men go to prostitutes because they are more or less ineffective in
securing sexual relations with other girls. This may be true of males who
are unusually timid. Persons who are deformed physically, deaf, blind,
severely crippled, spastic, or otherwise handicapped, often have consider-
able difficulty in finding heterosexual coitus. The matter may weigh heavily
upon their minds and cause considerable psychic disturbance. There are
instances where prostitutes have contributed to establishing these indi-
viduals in their own self esteem by providing their first sexual contacts.
Finally, at the lower social levels there are persons who are feeble-
minded, physically deformed, and so repulsive and offensive physically
that no girl except a prostitute would have intercourse with them. Without
such outlets, these individuals would become even more serious social
problems than they already are.
The exclusively homosexual male, however, is not the person to be
helped by a prostitute. There are numerous histories of such males being
advised % clinicians, or led by some friend, or forced by some hilarious
group of male companions into attempting intercourse with a prostitute.
In a high proportion of such cases the male proves impotent, and his
psychic problem is thereby intensified. Even when the intercourse is more
or less successful, it is likely to prove distasteful because of the unesthetic
conditions under which it is had. The introduction of the homosexual
male to heterosexual experience should come through friendships which
lead to affection and spontaneously erotic developments.
There is constant rumor of an increase in the frequency of forced inter-
course or outright rape among the girls of a community where prostitution
has been suppressed. We have no adequate data to prove the truth or
falsity of such reports.
Neither are we convinced that there has been any sufficiently objective
study of the place of prostitution in the spread of venereal disease, as
compared with the spread of such disease through sexual contacts with
lower level girls who are not prostitutes.
The significance of prostitution to the male who goes to the prostitute
must depend very much upon the sort of person who is involved and the
social background from which he comes. At lower social levels there are
some who find intercourse with prostitutes distasteful, but in a much larger
number of cases there are no objections to the type of relation that is had.
In not a few cases, the male insists that intercourse with a prostitute is
superior to intercourse with most other girls. The lower level male is not
particularly concerned with the responsiveness or unresponsiveness of his
female partner, and he is not interested in a particularly emotional expe-
rience in coitus, does not want any elaboration of pre-coital petting, and
does not object esthetically to the sorts of situations under which most of
INTERCOURSE WITH PROSTITUTES
609
the intercourse occurs. He likes a matter-of-fact performance in which there
are no emotional and no social obligations incurred. Most often he prefers
the prostitute, however, because she expects that there will be intercourse,
and does not offer the objections that other girls, even his wife, may offer
against sexual relations.
On the other hand, the upper level males who have contributed to the
present study have almost unanimously agreed that intercourse with a
prostitute is not nearly so satisfactory as the intercourse which may be
had with other girls. This is undoubtedly the prime reason why most upper
level males do not return to prostitutes more often than they do. The
complaints turn largely around the fact that a sexual relation which is
commercialized lacks the affection which makes a sexual relation signifi-
cant in marriage, or even in non-marital relations with girls who are not
prostitutes. The upper level male dislikes the limitation on petting in his
relations with prostitutes. He commonly complains about the genital
inadequacies of the prostitute, and this in most instances means that she
is not responding erotically. In consequence, she does not stimulate the
emotionally sensitive, upper level male. There is a fair number of upper
level males who find themselves impotent in attempting intercourse with
prostitutes, and this means that they are not psychically satisfied by the
situation.
What effect intercourse with prostitutes may have upon the personahty
of the male who is involved, is a matter which will need careful investiga-
tion by a quahfied psychologist or psychiatrist.
Chapter 21
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
In the total male population, single and married, between adolescence
and old age, 24 per cent of the total outlet is derived from solitary sources
(masturbation and nocturnal emissions), 69.4 per cent is derived from
heterosexual sources (petting and coitus), and 6.3 per cent of the total
number of orgasms is derived from homosexual contacts. It is not more
than 0.3 per cent of the outlet which is derived from relations with animals
of other species.
Homosexual contacts account, therefore, for a rather small but still
significant portion of the total outlet of the human male. The significance
of the homosexual is, furthermore, much greater than the frequencies of
outlet may indicate, because a considerable portion of the population,
perhaps the major portion of the male population, has at least some homo-
sexual experience between adolescence and old age. In addition, about 60
per cent of the pre-adolescent boys engage in homosexual activities (Chapter
5), and there is an additional group of adult males who avoid overt con-
tacts but who are quite aware of their potentialities for reacting to other
males.
The social significance of the homosexual is considerably emphasized
by the fact that both Jewish and Christian churches have considered this
aspect of human sexuality to be abnormal and immoral (Chapter 13).
Social custom and our Anglo-American law are sometimes very severe in
penalizing one who is discovered to have had homosexual relations. In
consequence, many persons who have had such experience are psychically
disturbed, and not a few of them have been in open conflict with the social
organization.
It is, therefore, peculiarly difficult to secure factual data concerning the
nature and the extent of the homosexual in Western European or American
cultures, and even more difficult to find strictly objective presentations of
such data as are available. Most of the literature on the homosexual repre-
sents either a polemic against the heinous abnormality of such activity,
or a biased argument in defense of an individual’s right to choose Ms
patterns of sexual behavior.
Until the extent of any type of human behavior is adequately known, it
is difficult to assess its significance, either to the individuals who are in-
volved or to society as a whole; and until the extent of the homosexual is
610
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
611
known, it is practically impossible to understand its biologic or social
origins. It is one thing if we are dealing with a type of activity that is
unusual, without precedent among other animals, and restricted to pecuhar
types of individuals within the human population. It is another thing if
the phenomenon proves to be a fundamental part, not only of human
sexuality, but of mammalian patterns as a whole. The present chapter is,
therefore, wholly confined to an analysis of the data which we now have
on the incidence and the frequencies of homosexual activity in the white
male population in this country. Analyses of the factors which affect the
development of both heterosexual and homosexual patterns of behavior
will be presented in a subsequent volume in this series.
REFERENCES
Specific data on the incidences and frequencies of overt homosexual
contacts in various segments of the male population have already been
detaile4 in this volume in tables and charts, and in discussions in the text,
as follows:
PAGE
TABLE
HGURE
68-70
84-88
2
4, 155-162
94-102
3,6
13
121-125,
13
129, 130
133-143
16, 20
21
143-147
21,23
24
162, 167-
24
25
168
166-167
25
168
26
169-171
27
168, 171-
28
26
172
171, 174
29
175-181
30-34
190-191
38
30
196
31
211-213
42
232-233
48
234-235
49
258-261,
58, 66
83-88
285-293
NATURE OF DATA
Homosexual items covered in the inter-
view
Size of sample necessary to establish
homosexual data
Comparisons of data obtained from hun-
dred percent and partial samples
Compansons of data on original histories
and retakes
Comparisons of data obtained by three
interviewers
Comparisons of data obtained in succes-
sive periods
Ages involved in pre-adolescent homo-
sexual play
Number of years involved in pre-adoles-
cent homosexual play
Sex of companions of pre-adolescent boys
Techniques in pre-adolescent sex play
Age of first pre-adolescent sex play
Continuity of pre-adolescent sex play
with adolescent activity
Pre-adolescent eroticism and orgasm
Sources of first ejaculation
Examples of combinations of sources of
outlet
Sexual outlet in a restrained group of
males
Capacity for multiple orgasm in sexual
contacts
Range of variation in homosexual con-
tacts
Homosexual contacts in relation to
marital status and age
612
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
PAGE
TABLE
FIGURE
NATURE OF DATA
300, 312,
315, 317,
320-321
68, 77-78
91,94
Homosexual contacts in relation to age
at onset of adolescence
357-362,
382-384
90, 94, 96-97,114-
115, 141-146
105-106
Homosexual contacts and social level
369-373
94
Oral techniques in sexual contacts
402-403,
410-413
100, 104-105
112
Comparisons of incidences and frequen-
cies of the homosexual in two succes-
sive generations
455-460
123
Homosexual contacts and rural-urban
backgrounds
482-484
131
Homosexual outlets and religious back-
grounds
378, 382,
488-493
512
523-527
96, 97
126, 128-133
Portion of total outlet derived from
homosexual contacts
Relation of masturbation and the homo-
sexual
Significance of dream content
617-629
139-140
3,6,156-158
Accumulative incidence of homosexual
contacts
631-636
159-160
Individual variation in frequencies of
homosexual contacts
636-650
161
Heterosexual-homosexual rating scale
640-656
141-150
162-169
Distribution of heterosexual-homosexual
ratings in the male population
658
170
Development of heterosexuality and
homosexuality, by age periods
DEFINITION
For nearly a century the term homosexual in connection with human
behavior has been applied to sexual relations, either overt or psychic,
between individuals of the same sex. Derived from the Greek root homo
rather than from the Latin word for man, the term emphasizes the sameness
of the two individuals who are involved in a sexual relation. The word is,
of course, patterned after and intended to represent the antithesis of the
word heterosexual, which apphes to a relation between individuals of
different sexes.
The term homosexual has had an endless list of synonyms in the technical
vocabularies and a still greater list in the vernaculars. The terms homogenic
love, contrasexuality, homo-erotism, similisexualism, uranism and others
have been used in English (Legman in Henry 1941). The terms sexual
inversion, intersexuality, transsexuaUty, the third sex, psychosexual her-
maphroditism, and others have been apphed not merely to designate the
nature of the partner involved in the sexual relation, but to emphasize the
general opinion that individuals engaging in homosexual activity are
neither male nor female, but persons of mixed sex. These latter terms are,
however, most unfortunate, for they provide an interpretation in anticipa-
tion of any sufficient demonstration of the fact; and consequently they
prejudice investigations of the nature and origin of homosexual activity.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
613
The term Lesbian, referring to such female homosexual relations as were
immortalized in the poetry of Sappho of the Greek Isle of Lesbos, has
gained considerable usage within recent years, particularly in some of the
larger Eastern cities where the existence of female homosexuality is more
generally recognized by the public at large. Although there can be no
objection to designating relations between females by a special term, it
should be recognized that such activities are quite the equivalent of sexual
relations between males.
It is unfortunate that the students of animal behavior have applied the
term homosexual to a totally different sort of phenomenon among the
lower mammals. In most of the literature on animal behavior it is applied
on the basis of the general conspectus of the behavior pattern of the animal,
its aggressiveness in seeking the sexual contact, its postures during coitus,
its position relative to the other animal in the sex relation, and the conform-
ance or disconformance of that behavior to the usual positions and activities
of the animal during heterosexual coitus (Ball, var. titles; Beach, var.
titles, espec. 1947).
In most mammals the behavior of the female in a heterosexual perform-
ance usually involves the acceptance of the male which is trying to make in-
tromission. The female at such a moment is less aggressive than the male,
even passive in her acceptance of the male’s approaches, and subordinate
in position to him during actual coitus. This means that the female usually
hes beneath the male or in front of him during copulation, either submitting
from the very beginning of the sexual relation or (as in the cats, ferret,
mink, and some other animals) being forced into submission by the assault
of the male. In the case of the mink, the female is far from being passive
during the initial stages of the contact, and the courting performances
involve as strenuous fighting as the most extreme non-sexual circumstances
could produce. There is no sexual relation, however, until the female has
been sufficiently subdued to allow the male to effect coitus. In the case of
the rat, the female which is in heat as the result of the hormones which her
ovaries secrete near the time of ovulation, is more readily induced to crouch
on the floor, arch her back (in lordosis) so her body is raised posteriorly,
and pass into a nervous state which is characterized by a general rigidity
of most of the body, but by a constant and rapid trembling of the ears and
by peculiar hopping movements. This is the behavior which is character-
istic of the female in a heterosexual contact, and this is what the students
of animals describe as typically feminine behavior.
Throughout the mammals it is the male which more often (but not
always) pursues the female for a sexual contact. In species where there is a
struggle before the female submits to coitus, the male must be physically
dominant and capable of controlling the female. In the ultimate act it is
the male which more often mounts in back of the female and makes the
614
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HimAN MALE
active pelvic thrusts which effect intromission. This is the behavior that
students of the lower mammals commonly refer to as typically masculine
behavior.
But among many species of mammals and, indeed, probably among
all of them, it not infrequently happens that males and females assume other
than their usual positions in a sexual contact. This may be dependent upon
individual differences in the physiology or anatomy of certain individuals,
on differences in hormones, on environmental circumstances, or on some
previous experience which has conditioned the animal in its behavior.
In a certain number of cases the assumption of the attitudes and posi-
tions of the opposite sex, among these lower mammals, seems to depend upon
nothing more than the accident of the position in which the individual finds
itself. The same male rat that has mounted a female in typical heterosexual
coitus only a few moments before, may crouch on the floor, arch its back,
and rear its posterior when it is approached by another rat from the rear.
The same female which rises from the floor where she has been crouching
in front of a copulating male may bump into another rat as she runs around
the cage, rear on her haunches in front of the decumbent partner, and go
through all of the motions that a male ordinarily goes through in hetero-
sexual copulation. She may move her pelvis in thrusts which are quite hke
those of the male. She may strike her genital area against the genital area
of the rat in front, quite as she would if she had a penis to effect entrance.
And, what is most astounding, she may double up her body as she pulls
back from the genital thrusts and manipulate her own genitaUa with her
mouth (Beach 1947), exactly as the male rat ordinarily manipulates his
penis between the thrusts that he makes when he is engaged in the mascu-
line role in the usual type of heterosexual relation.
The assumption by a male animal of a female position in a sexual rela-
tion, or the assumption by a female of a position which is more typical of
the male in a heterosexual relation, is what the students of animal behavior
have referred to as homosexuality. This, of course, has nothing whatsoever
to do with the use of the term among the students of human behavior,
and one must be exceedingly careful how one transfers the conclusions
based on these animal studies.
In studies of human behavior, the term inversion is applied to sexual
situations in which males play female roles and females play male roles in
sex relations. Most of the data on “homosexuality” in the animal studies
actually refer to inversion. Inversion, of course, may occur in either hetero-
sexual or homosexual relations, although there has been a widespread
opinion, even among students of human psychology, and among some
persons whose experience has been largely homosexual, that inversion is
an invariable accompaniment of homosexuality. However, this generaliza-
tion is not warranted. A more elaborate presentation of our data would
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
615
show that there are a great many males who remain as masculine, and a
great many females who remain as feminine, in their attitudes and their
approaches in homosexual relations, as the males or females who have
nothing but heterosexual relations. Inversion and homosexuality are two
distinct and not always correlated types of behavior.
More recently some of the students of animal behavior {e.g.. Beach in
later papers) have used the term bisexual to apply to individuals which
assume sometimes male and sometimes female roles during sexual activ-
ities. This, however, is not a happy correction of the terminology, because
the term bisexual has a long-standing meaning in biology which is totally
different than the meaning intended here. Moreover, in regard to human
behavior, the term bisexual has already been misapplied to persons who
include both heterosexual and homosexual activities in their current
histories. (See the discussion on “Bisexuality” in a later section in this
chapter.) The student of animal behavior is observing an inversion of
behavior patterns, and this is a phenomenon apart from either homo-
sexuahty or bisexuality, as those terms have ordinarily been used.
The inappropriate use of the term homosexual in the literature on animal
behavior has led to unfortunate misinterpretations of the data. Thus, for
instance, several investigators {e.g,, Ball, Beach, Stone, Young, et al.) have
shown that the injection of gonadal hormones may modify the frequency
with which an animal shows an inversion of behavior of the sort described
above. Among many clinicians this work has been taken to mean that the
sex hormones control the heterosexuality or homosexuality of an indi-
vidual’s behavior. This, of course, is a totally unwarranted interpretation.
The animal work merely shows that there may be an inversion of female and
male roles as a result of hormonal injections. It points to a relationship
between the amount of hormone and the aggressiveness of an individual in
approaching other animals for sexual relations. The injection of male
hormones quite generally increases the frequency and intensity of an
animal’s reactions, but there is no evidence that it affects its choice of a
partner in a sexual relation (Kinsey 1941). Beach (1947) makes the signifi-
cant observation that the males who most often assume the female type of
behavior are the ones who “invariably prove to be the most vigorous copu-
lators,” when they assume the more usual masculine role in coitus. There
is clinical experience with the human male which similarly shows that the
intensity of his sexual activity is increased when male hormones are ad-
ministered, while his choice of a partner (/.c., his heterosexuality or his
homosexuality) is not modified.
If the term homosexual is restricted as it should be, the homosexuahty or
heterosexuality of any activity becomes apparent by determining the sexes
of the two individuals involved in the relationship. For instance, mouth-
genital contacts between males and females are certainly heterosexual,
616
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
even though some persons may think of them as homosexual. And although
one may hear of a male “who has sex relations with his wife in a homo-
sexual way,” there is no logic in such a use of the term, and analyses of the
behavior and of the motivations of the behavior in such cases do not show
them necessarily related to any homosexual experience.
On the other hand, the homosexuality of certain relationships between
individuals of the same sex may be denied by some persons, because the
situation does not fulfill other criteria that they think should be attached
to the definition. Mutual masturbation between two males may be dis-
missed, even by certain clinicians, as not homosexual, because oral or
anal relations or particular levels of psychic response are required, accord-
ing to their concept of homosexuality. There are persons who insist that
the active male in an anal relation is essentially heterosexual in his behavior,
and that the passive male in the same relation is the only one who is homo-
sexual. These, however, are misapplications of terms, which are often
unfortunate because they obscure the interpretations of the situation which
the clinician is supposed to help by his analysis.
These misinterpretations are often encouraged by the very persons who
are having homosexual experience. Some males who are being regularly
fellated by other males without, however, ever performing fellation
themselves, may insist that they are exclusively heterosexual and that they
have never been involved in a truly homosexual relation. Their consciences
are cleared and they may avoid trouble with society and with the police
by perpetrating the additional fiction that they are incapable of responding
to a relation with a male unless they fantasy themselves in contact with a
female. Even clinicians have allowed themselves to be diverted by such
pretensions. The actual histories, however, show few if any cases of sexual
relations between males which could be considered anything but homo-
sexual.
Many individuals who have had considerable homosexual experience,
construct a hierarchy on the basis of which they insist that anyone who
has not had as much homosexual experience as they have had, or who is
less exclusively aroused by homosexual stimuli, is “not really homosexual.”
It is amazing to observe how many psychologists and psychiatrists have
accepted this sort of propaganda, and have come to believe that homo-
sexual males and females are discretely different from persons who merely
have homosexual experience, or who react sometimes to homosexual stim-
uh. Sometimes such an interpretation allows for only two kinds of males
and two kinds of females, namely those who are heterosexual and those
who are homosexual. But as subsequent data in this chapter will show,
there is only about half of the male population whose sexual behavior is
exclusively heterosexual, and there are only a few percent who are exclu-
sively homosexual. Any restriction of the term homosexuality to individuals
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
617
who are exclusively so demands, logically, that the term heterosexual be
apphed only to those individuals who are exclusively heterosexual; and this
makes no allowance for the nearly half of the population which has had
sexual contacts with, or reacted psychically to, individuals of their own as
well as of the opposite sex. Actually, of course, one must learn to recognize
every combination of heterosexuality and homosexuality in the histories of
various individuals.
It would encourage clearer thinking on these matters if persons were not
characterized as heterosexual or homosexual, but as individuals who have
had certain amounts of heterosexual experience and certain amounts of
homosexual experience. Instead of using these terms as substantives which
stand for persons, or even as adjectives to describe persons, they may
better be used to describe the nature of the overt sexual relations, or of
the stimuli to which an individual erotically responds.
PREVIOUS ESTIMATES OF INCIDENCE
Many persons have recognized the importance of securing specific
information on the incidence of the homosexual. The clinician needs to
know how far the experience of his patient departs from norms for the
remainder of the population. Counselors, teachers, clergymen, personnel
officers, the administrators of institutions, social workers, law enforcement
officers, and still others who are concerned with the direction of human
behavior, may completely misinterpret the meaning of the homosexual
experience in an individual’s history, unless they understand the incidence
and frequency of such activity in the population as a whole.
Administrators in prisons, mental institutions, public and private
schools, colleges and universities, the Army and the Navy, Y.M.C.A. and
scouting activities, and of all other sorts of groups, must understand the
part which the homosexual plays in the life of the total male population,
before they can understand the significance of the behavior of the particular
individuals with whom they are called upon to deal. Scientific explanations
of the origin and development of the homosexual, and, for that matter, of
the heterosexual, will not be on any sound basis until we know the number
of persons who are involved in each type of activity, the ages at which
they first become involved, and the ages at which they are most frequently
involved. There is no other aspect of human sexual activity about which it
has been more important to have some precise knowledge of the incidences
and frequencies.
There are many persons who believe the homosexual to be a rare phe-
nomenon, a chnical curiosity, and something which one may never meet
among the sorts of persons with whom he would associate. On the other
hand, there are some clinicians and some persons who have had first-hand
contacts in the homosexual, who have estimated that something between
50 and 100 per cent of the population has such experience.
618
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
There is undoubtedly a tendency on the part of some males who have
had frequent homosexual contacts to exaggerate in their estimates. Some
of these more promiscuous males have actually tested the responses of
hundreds and sometimes of thousands of males whom they have invited
to have homosexual relations. Many of them insist that a very high propor-
tion of all the males whom they have approached have accepted such rela-
tions, and it is upon this fact that they base their opinion that most males
are “homosexuar or that they are “partly homosexual,” or that they “are
really homosexual even though they may not be aware of it and may not
have had actual experience.” But they overlook the fact that the experi-
enced male does not actually invite anyone to have sexual relations until
he has had such social contact as may indicate the final success of his
sexual approach. His contacts are, therefore, really confined to a veiy
select portion of the males whom he meets.
Satisfactory incidence figures on the homosexual cannot be obtained by
any technique short of a carefully planned population survey. The data
should cover every segment of the total population. There is no other
aspect of human sexual behavior where it is more fundamental that the
sample be secured without any selection of cases which would bias the
results. Many persons with homosexual experience very naturally hesitate
to expose their histories. On the other hand, there are some who are so
upset by personal conflicts or social diflBculties that have developed out
of their homosexual activities that they are anxious to discuss their prob-
lems with an investigator whom they have come to trust. In consequence,
if one depends only upon volunteers in a survey, it is impossible to know
whether homosexual histories are represented in an undue proportion, or
less often than their actual incidence would demand. In order to secure
data that have any relation to the reality, it is imperative that the cases be
derived from as careful a distribution and stratification of the sample as
the public opinion polls employ, or as we have employed in the present
study.
Unfortunately, no previous attempts to assess the incidence of the homo-
sexual have begun to satisfy these demands for statistical adequacy. The
incidence figures which are most often quoted are derived from the 2 to 5
per cent estimate which Havelock Ellis made for England (Ellis 1936), and
from the more elaborate calculations made by Hirschfeld, chiefly for Ger-
many (as finally summarized in Hirschfeld 1920). The professional litera-
ture, if it does not cite these studies, rarely quotes any other sources except
“the best informed students of the subject” (e.g., Haire 1937, Rosanoff
1938, Squier in Folsom 1938, Painter 1941, Moore 1945, et al.); and
through devious channels these data have become general property among
people who have no idea of their origin. Terman and Miles (1936) do
credit a 4 per cent estimate to “the university medical staff in one of the
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
619
largest of American universities.” And there is a bare statement in McPart-
land (1947) which reports a current “guess” that “the number of potential
homosexuals in the United States is in the neighborhood of 8,000,000 or
higher”— a figure that represents about 6 per cent of the total male and
female population.
As for Ellis’ estimate of a 2 to 5 per cent incidence figure for males, and
double that figure for females, it is to be noted that this follows a review
of the Hirschfeld data, and is made without any support other than the
statement that “considering those individuals with whom I have been
brought in contact by the ordinary circumstances of life ... I am still led
to the conclusions that . . . there must be a distinct percentage which may
sometimes be . . . slightly over 2 per cent.” As a matter of fact, Ellis never
made any sort of systematic survey of any aspect of sex in any segment of
the population. He had a minimum of face to face contact with his subjects,
and depended largely upon information which was supplied him by cor-
respondents. It is, of course, only a very select portion of the population
that will send sex histories through the mails, and such histories are rarely
more than partial accounts, usually of specific episodes that have been
high lights in the life of the individual.
More elaborate attempts to obtain estimates of the extent of homosexual
activity have been made by some of the Central European students. At the
turn of the century, Romer in Holland got 595 of his fellow students to
give written answers to questions concerning their erotic reactions to fe-
males and to males. In 1903 and 1904, Magnus Hirschfeld conducted a
much more extensive investigation (finally summarized in Hirschfeld 1920).
Through the mails, Hirschfeld distributed forms to 3000 students at the
Charlottenburg Institute of Technology, and to 5721 metal workers in
Berlin, asking each recipient to indicate whether his “libido had always
been directed only to females , . . only to males ... or to both males and
females.” Of the 7481 persons who apparently received the letters, about
49 per cent answered. On the basis of these replies, Hirschfeld concluded
that 94.3 per cent of the males were exclusively heterosexual, 2.3 per cent
homosexual, and the remainder bisexual. The survey is open to the very
severe criticism that it involved only a highly selected sample of the total
population. What is more serious, one is left guessing as to the histories of
the 51 per cent that failed to answer the questionnaire.
In a more elaborate attempt to secure estimates of the incidence of the
homosexual, Hirschfeld contacted persons who, because they had homo-
sexual histories, could supply some information concerning the extent of
such activity in the business or professional groups in which they moved.
Persons in the Army and Navy were asked to estimate how many in their
whole company or among the officers in their group were known as homo-
sexual. College students were asked to estimate how many of the men in
620
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
their fraternities were known to have homosexual histories. Similar reports
were obtained from groups of Protestant clergymen and from Catholic
priests, from postal employees, railroad employees, a group of court
judges, bakers, bank employees, draftsmen, butchers, actors, hotel em-
ployees, the recorded histories of English kings, etc. — from a total of 34
different groups. Hirschfeld concluded that 525 out of the 23,771 persons
in these groups were “homosexual.” Calculations give an incidence figure
of approximately 2.2 per cent, and this is the figure on which Hirschfeld
subsequently depended.
Obviously this method of sampling falls far short of the demands of a
scientific population analysis. It depends upon the ability of an informant
to know the sexual histories of all the persons in a group, without collecting
actual histories from any of them. It depends upon the informant’s ability
to recognize homosexual males (other than those with whom he has had
actual contact) on the basis of their physical characters and mannerisms,
or of their public reputations. Very often such reputations are' nothing
more than mere gossip. Moreover, there are many persons in any group
whose homosexual histories are never known publicly. In brief, such
sources of information are little better than the gossip and general impres-
sions on which many persons depended before public opinion polls showed
what can be accomplished in a statistically well-organized survey.
Hirschfeld deserves considerable credit for having tried on a larger scale
than anyone had before to ascertain the facts on a matter that has always
been difficult to survey. Down to the beginning of the present study, no
more serious attempt has been made. Nevertheless, the uncritical accept-
ance of these inadequate calculations has delayed the recognition of the
magnitude of the medical, psychiatric, social, and legal problems involved
in homosexuality, and delayed scientific interpretations of the bases of
such behavior.
In later years, Hirschfeld had the opportunity to obtain the histories of
persons who visited his Sex Institute at Berhn, some of them as patients,
some of them merely as visitors who filled out the questionnaire supplied
by the Institute. Some 10,000 of these were accumulated in the course of
the years; but the data were uninterpretable because they were derived
from such a select portion of the total population. Moreover, all of the
Hirschfeld conclusions were biased by his opinion that a person is really
homosexual only when his psychic or overt contacts are more or less ex-
clusively so, and consequently his estimates may come nearer representing
the incidence of certain degrees of homosexuality, rather than the totahty
of homosexual activity.
There have been other European studies that have been modelled on the
Hirschfeld techniques, but all of them were based on smaller populations,
and none of them has had as great influence on the thinking of clinicians.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
621
In this country, three investigators have obtained data on the incidence
of the homosexual in our American male population. It is notable that ail
three of them have secured figures which are remarkably higher than the
European studies have given — not because there is any likelihood that the
American picture is particularly different from that in Europe, but because
all of these studies have come nearer satisfying the demands of a population
survey. All of them involved a more thorough coverage of particular
groups, and all of them were based on direct interviews with persons with
whom the interviewer had had enough contact to have developed some
rapport. Hamilton (1929) found that 17 per cent of the hundred men in
his study had had homosexual experience after they were eighteen years
old. Ramsey (1943), in a study of 291 younger boys, one-half of whom
constituted a hundred percent sample of a seventh and eighth grade group
in a junior high school, found that 30 per cent had had adolescent homo-
sexual experience to the point of orgasm. More recently (1947), Finger has
reported 27 per cent of a college class of 1 1 1 males admitting “at least one
overt homosexual episode involving orgasm.” These figures come remark-
ably close to those which we have obtained in the present study.
One other source of data on the extent of “homosexuality” among
American males has recently become available through statistics gathered
by Selective Service Boards and at induction centers during the last war.
Theoretically, this should have been a splendid opportunity to gain infor-
mation that would have been of considerable scientific use and of consider-
able practical use to the armed forces. From these sources, the over-all
figures show that about one-tenth of 1 per cent of all the men were rejected
by draft boards (Selective Service Bull. 1-4), about 0.4 per cent were turned
down at induction centers (e.g,, Hohman and Schaffner 1947), and about
as many more were subsequently discharged for homosexual activity while
they were in active service. The total gives about 1 per cent officially
identified as “homosexual.” These figures are so much lower than any
fvhich case history studies have obtained that they need critical examination.
The most obvious explanation of these very low figures lies in the fact
that both the Army and Navy had precluded the possibility of getting
accurate data on these matters by announcing at the beginning of the war
that they intended to exclude all persons with homosexual histories. The
American Army and Navy have always been traditionally opposed to
homosexual activity, and in the last war, for the first time, they turned to
psychiatrists to provide expert help in eliminating individuals with such
histories.
Physicians on draft boards and psychiatrists at induction centers were
charged with the responsibility of detecting and eliminating men with such
records, and many of the psychiatrists at induction centers paid especial
attention to identifying these men. While the reasons for elimination of
622
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
any man were supposed to be kept confidential, they were in actuality not
infrequently known to the whole community in which he lived. The mere
fact that he was rejected under a particular classification, or discharged
from the Army or Navy on a particular discharge form, often made him a
subject for suspicion, and in a large number of instances practically pre-
cluded the possibility of his securing employment as a civilian. Conse-
sequently, few men with any common sense would admit their homosexual
experience to draft boards or to psychiatrists at induction centers or in the
services.
It is amazing that some of the psychiatrists (e.g., Hohman and Schaffner
1947) apparently believed that they were getting a true record under these
circumstances. Only a naive individual, one who was badly neurotic and
upset over his experience, or an effeminate type of male who freely ex-
hibited his homosexual interests, was ordinarily detected through the
ojSicial channels. Many of the psychiatrists were less experienced in identify-
ing the obviously homosexual male than several million untrained persons
who had had actual contact with homosexual activities. Many psychiatrists
realized this, and some of them recognized the fact that the incidence of
homosexual activity in the armed forces must have been high — even
involving as many as 10 per cent or more of the men.
It is also to be noted that at induction centers the average interview was
limited to less than three minutes. Considering that the psychoanalysts and
many of the other psychiatrists have heretofore insisted that one could not
expect to obtain data on socially taboo items of sexual behavior in any-
thing less that a hundred hours of analysis, it is the more surprising that
the results of these short interviews at induction centers should have been
taken seriously.
Discharges from the Army and Navy similarly have not provided any
adequate source of information on the actual incidence of homosexual
activity. Many psychiatrists in the armed forces were aware of the great
social damage done to an individual who was discharged for such reasons,
and they considered it desirable to help him by showing fiat feet, stomach
ulcers, shock, or some other non-sexual item as the immediate cause of
the discharge. Consequently, no one anywhere in official circles in the
Army and the Navy will ever be able to obtain any adequate estimate of
the number of men with homosexual activity who were identified and
discharged from the services during the war.
The estimates on the incidence of the homosexual, range, then, from
these Selective Service figures of one-tenth of 1 per cent to the 100 per
cent estimates of some of the psychoanalysts and of some promiscuous
homosexual males. It has, therefore, been especially important in our pres-
ent study to apply all of the techniques of a statistically sound popula-
tion survey to obtaining data on this particular matter.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
623
INCIDENCE DATA IN PRESENT STUDY
The statistics given throughout this volume on the incidence of homo-
sexual activity, and the statistics to be given in the present section of this
chapter, are based on those persons who have had physical contacts with
other males, and who were brought to orgasm as a result of such contacts.
By any strict definition such contacts are homosexual, irrespective of the
extent of the psychic stimulation involved, of the techniques employed,
or of the relative importance of the homosexual and the heterosexual in
the history of such an individual. These are not data on the number of
persons who are “homosexual,” but on the number of persons who have
had at least some homosexual experience — even though sometimes not more
than one experience— up to the ages shown in the tables and curves. The
incidences of persons who have had various amounts of homosexual
experience are presented in a later section of this chapter.
An individual who engages in a sexual relation with another male
without, however, coming to chmax, or an individual who is erotically
aroused by a homosexual stimulus without ever having overt relations, has
certainly had a homosexual experience. Such relations and reactions are,
however, not included in the incidence data given here nor in most other
places in this volume, because the volume as a whole has been concerned
with the number and sources of male orgasms. On the other hand, the
data on the heterosexual-homosexual ratings which are presented later
in the present chapter, do take into account these homosexual contacts
in which the subject fails to reach climax. Accumulative incidence curves
based upon heterosexual-homosexual ratings may, therefore, be somewhat
higher than the accumulative incidence curves based upon overt contacts
carried through to the point of actual orgasm.
Data on the homosexual activity of the pre-adolescent boy have been
presented in another chapter (Chapter 5) and no male is included in any
of the calculations shown in the present chapter unless he has had homo-
sexual experience beyond the onset of adolescence.
In these terms (of physical contact to the point of orgasm), the data in
the present study indicate that at least 37 per cent of the male population
has some homosexual experience between the beginning of adolescence
and old age (U. S. Corrections. See Table 139, Figure 156). This is more
than one male in three of the persons that one may meet as he passes along
a city street. Among the males who remain unmarried until the age of 35,
almost exactly 50 per cent have homosexual experience between the
beginning of adolescence and that age. Some of these persons have but a
single experience, and some of them have much more or even a lifetime
of “experience; but all of them have at least some experience to the point
of orgasm.
21
624
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Total Homosexual Outlet: Accumulative Incidence
AGE
total population
u. s. corrections
EDUC. level
0-8 j
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
%with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8
3969
0.0
662
0.0
490
0.0
2817
0.0
9
3969
0.1
662
0.0
490
0.2
2817
0.1
10
3969
0.5
662
0.2
490
0.6
2817
0.5
11
3968
1.7
661
1.2
490
2.0
2817
1.8
12
3968
6.1
661
5,6
490
6.3
2817
6.2
13
3968
12.6
661
11.0
490
13.7
2817
11.6
14
3965
21.3
658
17.8
490
24.1
2817
18.0
15
3957
27.7
652
24.8
488
31.1
2817
' 21.1
16
3934
31.6
635
27.7
483
36.0
2816
23.0
17
3874
34.5
598
27.8
462
40.9
2814
24.1
18
3738
36.7
574
29.3
426
43.7
2738
25.6
19
3507
37.5
544
29.0
389
45.0
2574
26.7
20
3203
36.7
516
28.9
348
43.4
2339
27.6
21
2830
37.0
492
29.1
305
43.6
2033
28.6
22
2428
37.1
473
29.0
283
43.5
1672
29.8
23
2113
37.3
458
29.0
258
43.4
1397
31.5
24
1822
36.5
438
29.2 i
232
41.8
1152
32.1
25
1636
35.4 !
418
28.0 i
216
42.1
1002
33.0
26
1493
35.6
407
28.0 !
202
42.6
884
32.9
27
1358 !
35.6
393
28.5
191
41.9
774
33.7
28
1252
35.5
379
28.2
174
42.0
699
33.9
29
1143
33.7
355
27.3
154
39.0
634
33.6
30
1049
32.4
339
26.5
137
38.7
573
33.7
31
973
31.3
319
25.4
125
36.8
529
34.2
32
915
30.5
307
26.1
116
34.5
492
32.9
33
856
31.0
295
25.4
113
36.3
448
33.9
34
804
29.9
287
23.7
105
35.2
412
34.7
35
747
27.5
273
22.3
92
33.7
382
34.0
36
703
27.2
260
22.7
87
32.2
356
33.7
37
641
26.1
242
21.9
76
30.3
323
33.4
38
611
25.4
234
20.9 i
70
30.0
307
33.2
39
556
25.3
212
20.8
64
29.7
280
33.6
40
509
25.0
194
21.6
58
29.3
257
32.7
41
474
23.3
183
20.2
53
26.4
238
31.9
42
445
23.3
174
1 19.5
50
28.0
221
31.2
43
399
22.9
' 159
20.1
192
32.8
44
369
23.5
146
21.9
177
31.1
45
340
22.9
135
21.5
161
32.9
Table 139. Accumulative incidence data on total homosexual outlet
Covering the life span, including pre-marital, extra-marital, and post-marital exper-
ience. In three educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S.
Census of 1940.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
625
These figures are, of course, considerably higher than any which have
previously been estimated; but as already shown (Chapter 4) they must be
understatements, if they are anything other than the fact.
We ourselves were totally unprepared to find such incidence data when
this research was originally undertaken. Over a period of several years we
were repeatedly assailed with doubts as to whether we were getting a fair
cross section of the total population or whether a selection of cases was
biasing the results. It has been our experience, however, that each new
group into which we have gone has provided substantially the same data.
ASE
Figure 156. Homosexual outlet: accumulative incidence in total U. S. population
and in single population alone
Black line shows percent of total population which has ever had homosexual experi-
ence by each of the indicated ages. Hollow line shows percent of the population of
single males which has ever had experience. All data corrected for U. S. Census distribu-
tion. The incidence for the total population is lower than the incidence for the single
population because the males who marry have less homosexual experience and bring
down the averages when they are included in the calculations with the single males.
Whether the histories were taken in one large city or another, whether
they were taken in large cities, in small towns, or in rural areas, whether
they came from one college or from another, a church school or a state
university or some private institution, whether they came from one part of
the country or from another, the incidence data on the homosexual have
been more or less the same.
While the validity of the data on all of the sexual outlets has been
tested and retested throughout the study (Chapters 3 and 4), especial
attention has been given to testing the material on the homosexual. This
means, specifically, that we have checked these homosexual data in the
following ways:
626
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
1. By comparing samples of various size, taken by a strict randomiza-
tion out of the whole of the accumulation of histories (Tables 2, 155-162,
Figure 4).
2. By carefully providing cross-checks and other techniques in the
interviewing which would check memory and the accuracy of the data
(Chapters 2, 4).
3. By comparing data obtained from hundred percent and partial
samples (Tables 3, 6, Figure 13).
4. By comparing data on originals and re-takes of histories (Table 13).
5. By comparing data obtained by three different interviewers (Tables
16, 20, Figure 21).
6. By comparing data obtained by the same interviewer in two suc-
cessive four-year periods (Tables 21, 23, Figure 24).
7. By measuring the trends shown by data calculated for successive
age periods (Tables 58, 66, Figures 83-88).
8. By comparing data on groups of males who became adolescent at
different age periods (Tables 68, 77-78, Figures 91, 94).
9. By comparing data obtained from males of different educational
levels and occupational classes (Tables 90, 94, 96-97, 114-115, 141-146,
Figures 105-106).
10. By comparing homosexual incidences in two generations for which
the median age difference was 22 years (Table 100, Figure 114).
11. By comparing the incidences in rural and in urban groups (Table
123).
12. By comparing the data on various religious groups (Table 131).
If we had arrived at the present incidence figures by a single calculation
based on a single population, one might well question their validity. But
the determination of the extent of the homosexual in the population is too
important a matter to be settled on anything but an elaborately devised
system of samples. When twelve ways of obtaining data give results that
are as consistent as those which are to be found in the tables and charts
listed above, there can be no question that the actual incidence of the
homosexual is at least 37 and 50 per cent as given above. The tests show
that the actual figures may be as much as 5 per cent higher, or still higher.
Those who have been best acquainted with the extent of homosexual
activity in the population, whether through clinical contacts with homo-
sexual patients, through homosexual acquaintances, or through their own
firsthand homosexual experience, will not find it too diflacult to accept
the accumulative incidence figures which are arrived at here. There are
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
627
many who have been aware of the fact that persons with homosexual
histories are to be found in every age group, in every social level, in every
conceivable occupation, in cities and on farms, and in the most remote
areas in the country. They have known the homosexual in young adoles-
cents and in persons of every other age. They have known it in single
persons and in the histories of males who were married. In large city
communities they know that an experienced observer may identify hun-
dreds of persons in a day whose homosexual interests are certain. They
have known the homosexuality of many persons whose histories were
utterly unknown to most of their friends and acquaintances. They have
repeatedly had the experience of discovering homosexual histories among
ioo
. 80
0
-J
1 60
o.
-i
^ 40
u.
O
H
X
lU
2 to
M0SEXU>
ALL h
\l OUTL
4ALES
PT
HU
C 1
]
£DUC LE
©
— > f P
VBU I5+-
-J
_ jh ji
• S
^ 5 S ® (
> 0 0 r> 0 (
^ U LC?
^
1
■
10
15
20
25
AGE
30
35
40
45
Figure 157. Homosexual outlet: accumulative incidence in total U. S. population
for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population that has ever had homosexual experience by
each of the indicated ages. All data based on total population, irrespective of marital
status.
persons whom they had known for years before they realized that they had
had anything except heterosexual experience.
On the other hand, the incidence of the homosexual is not 100 per cent,
as some persons would have it. There is no doubt that there are males who
have never been involved in any sexual contact with any other male, and
who have never been conscious of any erotic arousal by another male.
For while some of the psychoanalysts will contend to the contrary, it is
to be pointed out that there are several dozen psychoanalysts who have
contributed histories to this study who have insisted that they have never
identified homosexual experience or reactions in their own histories.
The number of males who have any homosexual experience after the
onset of adolescence (the accumulative incidence) is highest in the group
that enters high school but never goes beyond in its educational career.
628
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Pre-marital Homosexual Outlet; Accumulative Incidence
age
TOTAL POPULATION
U. S. CORRECTIONS
educ. level
0-8
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
j
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
Cases
% with
Exper.
8 !
4301
0.0
814
0.0
632
0.0
2855
0.0
9
4301
0,1
814
0.0
632
0.2
2855
0.1
10
4301
0.4
814
0.2
632
0.5
2855
0.5
11
4300
1.8
813
1.2
632
2.1
2855
, 1.8
12
4300
6.4
813
5.5
632
7.0
2855
6.1
13
4299
13.1
812
11.0
632
14.6
2855
11.6
14 ,
4296
21.5
809
17.8
632
24.5
2855
18.0
15
4289
28.0
802
24.7
632
31.6
2855
21.1
16
4261
32.1
781
28.0
626
36.7
2854
23.0
11
4177
35.8
731
28.7
596
42.8
2850
24.1
18
3981
37.8
674
30.1
535
45.4
2772
25.5
19
3657
39.8
598
30.1
457
48.6
2602
26.6
20
3238
40 3
518
31.7
376
48.4
2344
27.4
21
2782
40.4
456
32.0
312
48.1
2014
28.5
22 i
2233
40.6
367
32.7
251
47.8
1615
29.8
23
1795
42.1
298
35.9
215
48.4
1282
31.2
24
1433
44.1 1
260
36.5
178
51.7
995
31.2
25
1157
44.4
221
38.0
154
53.2
782
33.0
26
945
46,9
189
42.3
135
54.8
621
33.7
27
736
48.1
171
45.0
119
54.6
446
35.0
28
593
48.9
150
47.3
105
53.3
338
38.8
29
491
48.0
131
45.8
91
52.7
269
i 38.7
30
397
48.1
117
45.3
72
54.2
208
40.4
31
324
48.6
99
45.5
64
54.7
161
41.6
32
281
50.2
93
46.2
56
57.1
132
43.9
33
242
49.7
80
45.0
113
44.2
34
207
50,9
75
42.7
90
46.7
35
180
49.8
70
40.0
76
47.4
36
163
50.5
69
40.6
66
50.0
37
141
48.8
62
40.3
56
55.4
38
132
53.7
58
41.4
54
53.7
39
114
50.8
51
37.3
Table 140. Accumulative incidence data on homosexual outlet in single males
In three educational levels, and in the total population corrected for the U. S. Census
of 1940.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
629
In that group 55 per cent of the males who are still single by 30 years of
age have had the experience of being brought to climax through a physical
contact with another male (Table 90). Among the boys who never go
beyond grade school the corresponding figure is 45 per cent, and for the
males who belong to the college level, 40 per cent. The accumulative
incidence figures for the whole of the life span (Table 140, Figure 157) are a
bit higher for all of these groups, inasmuch as there are some males who
do not have their first homosexual experience until after they are 30 years
of age.
Among single males in the population, the highest active incidence
figures occur in the older age groups. Between adolescence and 15 years of
age about 1 male in 4 (27%) has some homosexual experience (Table 58).
Figure 158. Flomosexual outlet: accumulative incidence among single males, in
three educational levels
The figures rise to nearly 1 male in 3 in the later teens and appear to drop
a bit in the early twenties. Among those who are not married by the latter
part of their twenties, the incidence is about 1 male in 3, and the figures
increase slightly among older unmarried males (39%). There are some
minor differences in the trends in the different social levels.
The drop in the active incidence figures between 21 and 25 appears so
consistently through all of the calculations, that there is reason for believ-
ing that it represents an actual fact in the behavior of the population.
During their late teens, many males experience considerable personal
conflict over their homosexual activities, because they have become more
conscious of social reactions to such contacts. Particularly in that period,
many individuals attempt to stop their homosexual relations, and try to
make the heterosexual adjustments which society demands. Some of these
individuals are, of course, successful, but in a certain number of cases they
630
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
finally reach the point, somewhere in their middle twenties, where they
conclude that it is too costly to attempt to avoid the homosexual, and
consciously, deliberately and sometimes publicly decide to renew such
activities. Another factor which certainly contributes to the decrease in
active incidence in the early twenties is the fact that heterosexually oriented
males are then marrying in great numbers, and this leaves an increas-
ingly select group at older ages in the single population.
The active incidence figures are highest among single males of the high
school level (Table 90). In the late teens nearly every other male of this
level (41%) is having some homosexual contact, and between the ages of
26 and 30 it is had by 46 per cent of the group. Among the males of the
grade school level about 1 in 4 (22 to 27%) has any homosexual experience
in any age period of the pre-marital years. Among the males who belong
to the college level only about 1 in 5 has homosexual experience between
adolescence and 15 (22%), 1 in 6 (16%) has such relations in the later teens,
and less than 1 in 10 (10%) has homosexual relations between the ages of
21 and 25. Among males who never go beyond grade school, about the
same number of individuals is involved while they are actually in grade
school, during their late teens when they are out of school, and in all the
subsequent years until they marry. Among the males who stop their school-
ing at high school levels a larger number is involved after they have left
school. For the males who belong to the college level, the largest number
is involved while they are in high school, but the number steadily decreases
in later years.
Homosexual activities occur in a much higher percentage of the males
who became adolescent at an early age; and in a definitely smaller per-
centage of those who became adolescent at later ages (Tables 77, 78,
Figure 94). For instance, at the college level, during early adolescence
about 28 per cent of the early-adolescent boys are involved, and only 14
per cent of the boys who were late in becoming adolescent. This difference
is narrowed in successive age periods, but the boys who became adolescent
first are more often involved even ten and fifteen years later. It is to be
recalled (Chapter 9) that these early-adolescent boys are the same ones
who have the highest incidences and frequencies in masturbation and in
heterosexual contacts. It is the group which possesses on the whole the
greatest sex drive, both in early adolescence and throughout most of the
subsequent periods of their lives.
Homosexual activities occur less frequently among rural groups and
more frequently among those who live in towns or cities (Table 123).
On the other hand, it has already been pointed out (Chapter 12) that this
is a product not only of the greater opportunity which the city may provide
for certain types of homosexual contacts, but also of the generally lower
rate of total outlet among males raised on the farm. It has also been pointed
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
631
out that in certain of the most remote rural areas there is considerable
homosexual activity among lumbermen, cattlemen, prospectors, miners,
hunters, and others engaged in out-of-door occupations. The homosexual
activity rarely conflicts with their heterosexual relations, and is quite
without the argot, physical manifestations, and other affectations so often
found in urban groups. There is a minimum of personal disturbance or
social conflict over such activity. It is the type of homosexual experience
which the explorer and pioneer may have had in their histories.
On the whole, homosexual contacts occur most frequently among the
males who are not particularly active in their church connections. They
occur less frequently among devout Catholics, Orthodox Jewish groups,
and Protestants who are active in the church. The differences are not always
great, but lie constantly in the same direction.
Among married males the highest incidences of homosexual activity
appear to occur between the ages of 16 and 25, when nearly 10 per cent
of the total population of married males (U.S. Correction) is involved
(Table 66, Figure 85). The available data seem to indicate that the per-
centage steadily drops with advancing age, but we have already suggested
that these figures are probably unreliable. Younger, unmarried males have
regularly given us some record of sexual contacts with older, married males.
Many married males with homosexual experience currently in their
histories have, undoubtedly, avoided us, and it has usually been impossible
to secure hundred percent groups of older married males, especially from
males of assured social position, primarily because of the extra-marital
intercourse which they often have, and sometimes because some of them
have active homosexual histories. About 10 per cent of the lower level
married males have admitted homosexual experience between the ages of
16 and 20. About 13 per cent of the high school level has admitted such
experience after marriage and between the ages of 21 and 25. Only 3 per
cent of the married males of college level have admitted homosexual
experience after marriage — mostly between the ages of 31 and 35. It has
been impossible to calculate accumulative incidence figures for these
several groups, but they must lie well above the active incidence figures
just cited.
Finally, it should be noted that there is no evidence that the homosexual
involves more males or, for that matter, fewer males today than it did
among older generations, at least as far back as the specific record in the
present study goes (Chapter 11, Tables 100, 104, Figure 112).
FREQUENCIES
Since the incidence of the homosexual is high, and since it accounts for
only 8 to 16 per cent of the total orgasms of the unmarried males (Tables
66, 96, 97, Figures 84, 126, 128-130) and for a rather insignificant portion
632
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
of the outlet of the married males (Figures 131-133), it is obvious that the
mean frequencies must be low in the population as a whole. Even when the
calculations are confined to those males who are having actual experience,
the average frequencies are never high.
These low rates are in striking discord with the fact that homosexual
contacts could in actuality be had more abundantly than heterosexual
contacts, if there were no social restraints or personal conflicts involved.
The sexual possibilities of the average male in his teens or twenties are
probably more often assayed by males than by females, and younger males
who are attractive physically or who have attractive personalities may be
approached for homosexual relations more often than they themselves
would ever approach females for heterosexual relations. A homosexually
experienced male could undoubtedly find a larger number of sexual partners
among males than a heterosexually experienced male could find among
females. It is, of course, only the experienced male who understands that
homosexual contacts are so freely available. The considerable taboo which
society places upon these activities and upon their open discussion leaves
most people in ignorance of the channels through which homosexual
contacts are made; and even among males who desire homosexual rela-
tions, there are only a relatively few who have any knowledge of how to
find them in abundance. Consequently, many homosexual individuals may
go for months and even for years at a stretch without a single contact
which is carried through to orgasm.
The heterosexual male finds a regular outlet if he locates a single female
who is acceptable as a wife in marriage. The homosexual male is more
often concerned with finding a succession of partners, no one of whom will
provide more than a few contacts, or perhaps not more than a single
contact. Some promiscuous males with homosexual histories become so
interested in the thrill of conquest, and in the variety of partners and in the
variety of genital experiences that may be had, that they deliberately turn
down opportunities for repetitions of contacts with any one person. This
necessity for finding new partners may result in their going for some days
or weeks without sexual relations.
Even the most experienced homosexual males may be inhibited from
making all the contacts that are available because of preferences for par-
ticular sorts of partners. A male who has highly developed esthetic tastes,
one who is emotionally very sensitive, one who. over-reacts to situations
which do not entirely please him, one who develops a preference for a
partner of a particular age or a particular social level, of a particular height
or weight, with hair of a particular color, with particular genital qualities,
or with other particular physical aspects — ^a male who refuses to have
sexual relations except under particular circumstances, at particular hours
of the day, and in particular sorts of environments — may turn down hun-
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET 633
dreds of opportunities for contacts before he finds the one individual with
whom he accepts a relation.
Many of the males who have homosexual histories are acutely aware
that they are transgressing social custom and engaging in activity which
has a certain amount of peril attached to it if it becomes known to the
society in which they live. Consequently, many such males become over-
sensitive to the precise situations under which they accept relationships.
All of these handicaps make for discord between homosexual partners,
and this lessens the number of opportunities for successful relations.
Long-time relationships between two males are notably few. Long-time
relationships in the heterosexual would probably be less frequent than
they are, if there were no social custom or legal restraints to enforce
continued relationships in marriage. But without such outside pressures
to preserve homosexual relations, and with personal and social conflicts
continually disturbing them, relationships between two males rarely sur-
vive the first disagreements.
There are some males whose homosexuality is undoubtedly the product
of inherent or acquired timidity or other personality traits which make it
difficult for them to approach other persons for any sort of social contact.
Such males find it easier to make contacts with individuals of their own
sex. Their homosexuality may be the direct outcome of their social inade-
quacies. Even with their own sex, however, these timid individuals may
find it very difficult to approach strangers. They may resort to taverns,
clubs, and other places where they know that homosexual contacts may be
easily obtained, but are likely to go alone, and may go regularly for weeks
and months without speaking to anyone in the assemblage. The low rates
of outlet of some of these individuals are as extreme as any in the whole
male population.
There are some males who are primarily or even exclusively homosexual
in their psychic responses, but who may completely abstain from overt
relations for moral reasons or for fear of social difficulties. Left without
any socio-sexual contacts, some of these persons have essentially no outlet,
and some of them are, therefore, very badly upset.
For these several reasons, average frequencies among males with homo-
sexual histories are usually low, and there are very few high frequencies.
In any particular age group, in any segment of the population, it is never
more than about 5.5 per cent of the males who are having homosexual
relations that average more than once every other day (3.5 per week).
Calculating only for the males who actually have homosexual experience,
there are never more than 5.2 per cent that have frequencies averaging more
than 6.0 per week during their most active years. Considering that it is
25 per. cent of the entire population which has total sexual outlets which
Figure 159, Homosexual outlet: individual variation in frequencies, among
single males, at ages adolescent-15 and 16-20, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has homosexual experience
with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
634
Figure 160. Homosexual outlet: individual variation in frequencies among single
males, at ages 21-25 and 26-30, for three educational levels
Showing percent of each population (vertical line) which has homosexual experience
with each type of frequency (horizontal line).
635
636
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
average more than 3.5 per week, and considering that 24 per cent of the
married males have outlets that average more than 6.0 per week in then-
most active period, it is apparent that outlets from the homosexual are
definitely low.
Among single males who are having homosexual experience the average
frequencies rise from 0.8 per week in early adolescence to about 1.3 per
week at age 25 and 1.7 per week by age 35 (Table 58). Since the frequencies
of total sexual outlet steadily decrease with advancing age (Chapter 7), it
is to be noted that the homosexual supplies an increasing proportion of
the orgasms for the single males who are having such contacts: 17.5 per
cent of the orgasms in early adolescence, 30.3 per cent in the early twenties,
40.4 per cent by age 40 (Table 58). This increased dependence of this older
male upon his homosexual outlet parallels the increased dependence which
the heterosexual male places upon coitus as a source of outlet (Chapter 7).
The situation is, however, accentuated in the case of the homosexual be-
cause the younger male may be restrained by considerable doubts as to
the advisability of continuing in a socially taboo activity (Figures 162-
167). See the discussion in this chapter on Incidences,
The frequencies of homosexual contacts differ considerably at different
social levels (Tables 90, 114, Figure 105). The least frequent activity is to
be found in the college level. Comparing active populations of college and
high school levels, there is 50 to 100 per cent more frequent activity among
the males of the high school group. The grade school level stands inter-
mediate between the other two groups. The differences between the social
levels are most marked in the early age periods.
The considerable amount of homosexual experienc'=‘ among males of
the high school level is a matter for especial note. See the discussion in
Chapter 10 (p. 384).
Between rural and urban groups the frequencies of homosexual contacts
differ in the same way that the incidences differ (c/. above). The contacts
are less frequent among the farm boys of grade school and high school
level (Table 123); but for the college level there are almost no differences
between the two groups (Chapter 12).
Homosexual contacts, among those males who are having such relations,
occur less frequently (in most groups) among persons who are actively
interested in the church (Table 131), more frequently among those who
have least to do with rehgious activities (Chapter 13).
THE HETEROSEXUAL-HOMOSEXUAL BALANCE
Concerning patterns of sexual behavior, a great deal of the thinking
done by scientists and laymen alike stems from the assumption that there
are persons who are “heterosexual” and persons who are “homosexual,”
that these two types represent antitheses in the sexual world, and that
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
637
there is only an insignificant class of ^‘bisexuals” who occupy an inter-
.mediate position between the other groups. It is implied that every in-
dividual is innately — inherently — either heterosexual or homosexual. It is
further implied that from the time of birth one is fated to be one thing or
the other, and that there is little chance for one to change his pattern in the
course of a lifetime.
It is quite generally believed that one’s preference for a sexual partner
of one or the other sex is correlated with various physical and mental
qualities, and with the total personality which makes a homosexual male
or female physically, psychically, and perhaps spiritually distinct from a
heterosexual individual. It is generally thought that these qualities make
a homosexual person obvious and recognizable to any one who has a
sufficient understanding of such matters. Even psychiatrists discuss “the
homosexual personality” and many of them believe that preferences for
sexual partners of a particular sex are merely secondary manifestations of
something that lies much deeper in the totality of that intangible which
they call the personality.
It is commonly believed, for instance, that homosexual males are rarely
robust physically, are uncoordinated or delicate in their movements, or
perhaps graceful enough but not strong and vigorous in their physical
expression. Fine skins, high-pitched voices, obvious hand movements, a
feminine carriage of the hips, and peculiarities of walking gaits are sup-
posed accompaniments of a preference for a male as a sexual partner. It is
commonly believed that the homosexual male is artistically sensitive,
emotionally unbalanced, temperamental to the point of being unpredict-
able, difficult to get along with, and undependable in meeting specific
obligations. In physical characters there have been attempts to show that
the homosexual male has a considerable crop of hair and less often be-
comes bald, has teeth which are more like those of the female, a broader
pelvis, larger genitalia, and a tendency toward being fat, and that he lacks
a linea alba. The homosexual male is supposed to be less interested in
athletics, more often interested in music and the arts, more often engaged
in such occupations as bookkeeping, dress design, window display, hair-
dressing, acting, radio work, nursing, religious service, and social work.
The converse to all of these is supposed to represent the typical hetero-
sexual male. Many a clinician attaches considerable weight to these things
in diagnosing the basic heterosexuality or homosexuality of his patients.
The characterizations are so distinct that they seem to leave little room for
doubt that homosexual and heterosexual represent two very distinct types
of males.
The Terman-Miles scale for determining the degree of masculinity or
femininity of an individual (Terman and Miles 1936) is largely based upon
these preconceptions. Some other psychology scales have utilized very
638
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
much the same principles. While these scales have made it more apparent
that there may be gradations between exclusively heterosexual and ex-
clusively homosexual individuals, or between the extremes of masculinity
and the extremes of femininity, the implication is always present that an
individuars choice of a sexual partner is closely related to the masculinity
or femininity of his personality.
It should be pointed out that scientific judgments on this point have been
based on little more than the same sorts of impressions which the general
public has had concerning homosexual persons. But before any suflacient
RATINGS
<
X
O
:s
o
X
Figure 161. Heterosexual-homosexual rating scale
Based on both psychologic reactions and overt experience, individuals rate as follows:
0. Exclusively heterosexual with no homosexual
1 . Predominantly heterosexual, only incidentally homosexual
2. Predominantly heterosexual, but more than incidentally homosexual
3. Equally heterosexual and homosexual
4. Predominantly homosexual, but more than incidentally heterosexual
5. Predominantly homosexual, but incidentally heterosexual
6. Exclusively homosexual
study can be made of such possible correlations between patterns of sexual
behavior and other qualities in the individual, it is necessary to understand
the incidences and frequencies of the homosexual in the population as a
whole, and the relation of the homosexual activity to the rest of the sexual
pattern in each individual’s history.
The histories which have been available in the present study make it
apparent that the heterosexuality or homosexuality of many individuals
is not an all-or-none proposition. It is true that there are persons in the
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
639
population whose histories are exclusively heterosexual, both in regard to
their overt experience and in regard to their psychicreactions. And there are
individuals in the population whose histories are exclusively homosexual,
both in experience and in psychic reactions. But the record also shows that
there is a considerable portion of the population whose members have
combined, within their individual histories, both homosexual and hetero-
sexual experience and/or psychic responses. There are some whose hetero-
sexual experiences predominate, there are some whose homosexual ex-
periences predominate, there are some who have had quite equal amounts
of both types of experience.
Some of the males who are involved in one type of relation at one period
in their lives, may have only the other type of relation at some later period.
There may be considerable fluctuation of patterns from time to time. Some
males may be involved in both heterosexual and homosexual activities
within the same period of time. For instance, there are some who engage
in both heterosexual and homosexual activities in the same year, or in the
same month or week, or even in the same day. There are not a few indi-
viduals who engage in group activities in which they may make simulta-
neous contact with partners of both sexes.
Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and
homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats. Not all
things are black nor all things white. It is a fundamental of taxonomy that
nature rarely deals with discrete categories. Only the human mind invents
categories and tries to force facts into separated pigeon-holes. The living
world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects. The sooner we
learn this concerning human sexual behavior the sooner we shall reach a
sound understanding of the realities of sex.
While emphasizing the continuity of the gradations between exclusively
heterosexual and exclusively homosexual histories, it has seemed desirable
to develop some sort of classification which could be based on the relative
amounts of heterosexual and of homosexual experience or response in
each history. Such a heterosexual-homosexual rating scale is shown in
Figure 161. An individual may be assigned a position on this scale, for each
age period in his fife, in accordance with the following definitions of the
various points on the scale:
0. Individuals are rated as O’s if they make no physical contacts which r^ult
in erotic arousal or orgasm, and make no psychic responses to individuals ot
their own sex. Their socio-sexual contacts and responses are exclusively with
individuals of the opposite sex.
1. Individuals are rated as I’s if they have only incidental homosexual con-
tacts which have involved physical or psychic response, or incidental psyeme
responses without physical contact. The great preponderance of their socio-
sexual experience and reactions is directed toward individuals of the opposite sex.
Such homosexual experiences as these individuals have may occur only u sing e
640
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating : Active Incidence
Single White Males — Educ. Level 0-8
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
%
/o
%
%
%
%
/o
%
5
820
92.6
2.3
0.1
0.4
1.5
0.2
0.1
2.8
6
820
87.1
2,9
0.5
1.2
2.8
0.2
0.1
5.2
7
819
81 8
4.2
1.5
2.2
3.2
0.9
0.2
6.0
8
819
73.7
6.2
1.8
3.5
4.3
0.7
0.4
1 9.4
9
819
70.5
6.6
1.8
4.3
4.6
0.7
0.5
11.0
10
819
62.9
8.5
2.2
5.1
5.9
1.0
0.5
1 13.9
11
818
59.9
10.0
2.3
5.4
6.4
1.1
0.5
! 14.4
12
815
54.1
13.3
2.8
6.5
7.1
1.2
0.6
14.4
13
814
49.8
20.8
2,3
5.7
6.0
1.6
0.9
‘ 12.9
14
811
41.2
31.4
1.7
5.3
6.3
2.1
1.4
10.6
15
803
32.0
42.1 i
2.7
6.2
5.1
2.7
1.5
7.7
16
774
24.1
50.1
3,7
7.6
5.0
3.1
1.4
5.0
17
708
17.5
56.4 i
4.0
8.1
5.1
3.1
1.4
4.4
18
635
11.5
61.6
4.6
7.9
5.7
2.4
1 1.7
4.6
19
550
10.7
62.5
4.5
8.0
6.0
! 2.5
1.3
4.5
20
473
9.3
65.1
3.2
7.6
5.7
2.5
1.5
5.1
21
386
8.8
63.0
4.1
7.8
6.7
2.9
2.3
4.4
22
306
7.8
63.9
4.2
6.9
7.8
2.6
2.6
4.2
23
269
8.2
61.7
4.5
8.2
7.4
3.3
1 2.6
4.1
24
231
6,1
62.3
4.3
9.1
8.2
3.5
1.3
5.2
25
187
4.8 i
59.9 1
7.0
9.1
9.1
3.2
1.6
5.3
26
172
2.3
60.5
5.8
1 9.9
10.5
3.5
1.7
5.8
27
152
2.6
57.3
7.2
10.5
11.2
3.3
2.6
5.3
28
134
2.2
55.3
6.0
11.2
13.4
3.7
1.5
6.7
29
121
2,5
54.5
5.8
i 12.4
13.2
4.1
1.7
5.8
30
107
1.9
53,2
6,5
11.2
13.1
4.7
1.9
7.5
31
95
2.1
54.7
5.3
8.4 '
11.6
7.4
4.2
6.3
32
87
2.3
54.2
5.7
8.0
11.5
5.7
4.6
8.0
33
78
2.6
56.4
5.1
10.3
11.5
2.6
5.1
6.4
34
72
2.8
58.2
1.4
11.1
12.5
2.8
5.6
5.6
35
68
2.9
58.8
1.5
11.8
13.2
1.5
5.9
4.4
36
65
3.1
58.5
1.5
10.8
13.8
1.5
4.6
6.2
37
59
1.7
57.5
1.7
11.9
15.3
1.7
3.4
6.8
38
57
1.8
57.8
1.8
12.3
15.8
0.0
3.5
7.0
39
50
2.0
64.0
2.0
8.0
18.0
0.0
0.0
6.0
Table 141. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for single white males of grade
school level (0-8)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanings of the ratings X, 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of the population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
641
time or two, or at least infrequently in comparison to the amount of their hetero-
sexual experience. Their homosexual experiences never involve as specific psychic
reactions as they make to heterosexual stimuli. Sometimes the homosexual
activities in which they engage may be inspired by curiosity, or may be more
or less forced upon them by other individuals, perhaps when they are asleep or
when they are drunk, or under some other peculiar circumstance.
2. Individuals are rated as 2’s if they have more than incidental homosexual
experience, and /or if they respond rather definitely to homosexual stimuli. Their
heterosexual experiences and /or reactions still surpass their homosexual experi-
ences and/or reactions. These individuals may have only a small amount of
homosexual experience or they may have a considerable amount of it, but in
every case it is surpassed by the amount of heterosexual experience that they
have within the same period of time. They usually recognize their quite specific
arousal by homosexual stimuli, but their responses to the opposite sex are still
stronger. A few of these individuals may even have all of their overt experience
in the homosexual, but their psychic reactions to persons of the opposite sex
indicate that they are still predom'nantly heterosexual. This latter situation is
most often found among younger males who have not yet ventured to have
actual intercourse with girls, while their orientation is definitely heterosexual.
On the other hand, there are some males who should be rated as 2’s because of
their strong reactions to individuals of their own sex, even though they have
never had overt relations with them.
3. Individuals who are rated 3’s stand midway on the heterosexual-homo-
sexual scale. They are about equally homosexual and heterosexual in their overt
experience and/or their psychic reactions. In general, they accept and equally
enjoy both types of contacts, and have no strong preferences for one or the other.
Some persons are rated 3’s, even though they may have a larger amount of
experience of one sort, because they respond psychically to partners of both
sexes, and it is only a matter of circumstance that brings them into more frequent
contact with one of the sexes. Such a situation is not unusual among single
males, for male contacts are often more available to them than female contacts.
Married males, on the other hand, find it simpler to secure a sexual outlet
through intercourse with their wives, even though some of them may be as
interested in males as they are in females.
4. Individuals are rated as 4’s if they have more overt activity and/or psychic
reactions in the homosexual, while still maintaining a fair amount of hetero-
sexual activity and /or responding rather definitely to heterosexual stimuli.
5. Individuals are rated 5’s if they are almost entirely homosexual in their
overt activities and /or reactions. They do have incidental experience with the
opposite sex and sometimes react psychically to individuals of the opposite sex.
6. Individuals are rated as 6’s if they are exclusively homosexual, both in
regard to their overt experience and in regard to their psychic reactions.
It will be observed that this is a seven-point scale, with 0 and 6 as the
extreme points, and with 3 as the midpoint in the classification. On opposite
sides of the midpoint the following relations hold:
0 is the opposite of 6
1 is the opposite of 5
2 is the opposite of 4
642
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating : Active Incidence
Single Whete Males — ^Educ. Level 9-12
age
CASES
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
5
631
%
90.8
/o
4.4
%
0.3
%
0.3
%
0.8
%
0.3
%
0.2
%
2.9
6
631
83.0
7.4
0.8
0.8
2.2
0.5
0.2
5.1
7
631
77.7
9.0
1.1
1.7
3.0
1.1
0.2
6.2
8
631
72.0
10.9
1.0
2.2
3.6
1.1
0.3
. 8.9
9
631
68.7
9.7
1.1
2.7
4.8
1.1
0.3
11.6
10
631
59.3
11.9
1.7
3.2
5.5
1.4
0.5
16.5
11
631
56.0
12.7
3.2
4.1
5.5
1.4
1.1
16.0
12
631 1
46.1
18.9
4.0
5.5
6.0
2.2
1.1
16.2
13
631
40.3
26.1
4.0
5.2
6.0
2.2
1.6
14.6
14
631
27.9
40.5
3.6
5.5
4.8
3.0
3.0
11.7
15
629
19.9
48.6
4.3
6.5
4.8
4.6
3.5
7.8
16
619
9.7
56.6
6.5
8.1
4.7
4.7
3.6
6.5
17
577
4.9
56.2
7.3
11.1
4.5
5.2
4.0
6.8
18
502
3.0
57.0
6.6
10.8
6.0
5.4
4.6
7.0
19
420
2.4
55.2
6.9
11.7
5.0
5.2
6.0
7.6
20
350
2.0
57.0
5.4
10.9
4.6
4.9
6.6
8.6
21
274
1.5
56.9
6.6
8.8
3.6
5.8
7.3
9.5
22
232
1.7
56.5
6.9
8.2
3.9
5.2
7.3
10.3
23
197
1.5
55.4 1
7.1
6.1
5.1
7.1
9.1
8.6
24
166
1.8
51.4
7.8
6.6
6.0
8.4
8.4
9.6
25
140
0.7
50 8 1
6.4
5.7
5.7
9.3
10.7
10.7
26
125
1.6
50.4
6.4
5.6
2.4
10.4
9.6
13.6
27
113
0.9
52.3
6.2
4.4
3.5
8.8
9.7
14.2
28
97
1.0
52.5 i
5.2
2.1
3.1
12.4
9.3
14.4
29
82
1.2
48.8
7.3
2.4
3.7
11.0
8.5
17.1
30
67
1.5
46.2
9.0
3.0
3.0
10.4
9.0
17.9
31
58
0.0
48.3
6.9
5.2
3.4
6.9
8.6
20.7
Table 142. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for single white males of high
school level (9-12)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanings of the ratings X, 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of the population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
643
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating: Active Incidence
Single White Males — ^Educ. Level 13+
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
5
2846
%
85.8
■%
7.3
%
0.2
%
0.2
%
2.2
%
0.6
%
0.2
%
3.5
6
2846
82.5
7.7
0.3
0.6
3.0
0.7
0.2
5.0
7
2846
79.5
8.0
0.3
0.7
3.1
1.0
0.5
6.9
8
2846
73.1
9.5
0.5
1.2
4.1
1.2
0.6
9.8
9
2846
72.2
9.1
0.6
1.3
4.3
1.3
0.6
10.6
10
2846
63.9
11.3
0.9
1.9
5.5
1.7
0.7
14.1
11
2846
61.7
12.4
i 1.1
2.1
5.0
1.9
0.8
15.0
12 .
2846
51.5
19.7
1.4
2.5
5.2
2.4
1.0
16.3
13
2846
42.5
31.8
1.9
2.5
5.1
3.0
1.4
11.8
14
2846
30.0
47.6
3.0
3.0
3.7
3.0
1.5
8.2
15
2846
22.3
59.1
3.3
2.9
2.8
2.7
1.4
5.5
16 ‘
2843
13.8 '
68.9
4.0
3.0
2.5
2.5
1.7
1 3.6
17
2839
8.9
75.7
3.9
2.8
2.0
2.2
1.7
2.8
18
2755
5.7
79.5
4.8
2.5
1.6
1.8
1.8
2.3
19
2579
4.3
81.0
5.2
2.3
1.6
1.8
1.8
2.2
20
2306
3.9
80.6
5.6
2.6
1.3
1.8 ’
1.9
2.3
21
1961
3.6
81.4
5.2
2.5
1.0
1.9
2.0
2.4
22
1527
3.2
80.4
5.4
2.3
1.0
2.2
2.4
3.1
23
1201
2.9
80.5
4.5
2.2
0.9
2.4
2.9
3.7
24
895
3.2
77.5
5.1
2.1
1.3
3.4
3.0
4.4
25
687
3.3
75.5
5.5
2.3 i
1.3
3.3
4.1
4.7
26
517
3.7
71.9
5.8
2.9
1.4
3.1
5.0
6.2
27
381
3.7
68.3
7.1
1.8
1.3
3.9
5.5
8.4
28
303
4.3
67.0
6.6
0.3
1.7
3.6
6.6
9.9
29
240
4.2
67.4
5.0
0.4
1.3
2.1
7.5
12.1
30
179
4.5
64.7
4.5
0.6
0.6
2.8
9.5
12.8
31
140
5.7
64.9
3.6
0.7
0.0
2.9
7.9
14.3
32
119
6.7
63.1
4,2
0.8
0.0
3.4
8.4
13.4
33
100
7.0
59.0
5.0
1.0
0.0
4.0
7.0
17.0
34
80
6.3
56.2
5.0
0.0
0.0
5.0
7.5
20.0
35
71
7.0
55.0
5.6
0.0
1.4
2.8
8.5
19.7
36
58
6.9
48.4
5.2
0.0
1.7
3.4
10.3
24.1
37
56
7.1
48.2
5.4
0.0
1.8
3.6
10.7
23.2
38
51
5.9
51.0
3.9
0.0
0.0
3.9
9.8
25.5
Table 143. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for single white males of college
level (13 +)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanings of the ratings X, 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of the population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
AGE
5 10 (5 20 25 30 35 40
AGE
Figures 162-164. Active incidence curves: heterosexual-homosexual ratings,
by age and educational level, among single males
Top figure, 162, shows percent of single males who have at least incidental (or more)
homosexual reactions or experience (ratings 1-6) in each year. Middle figure, 163, shows
percent of single males who have more than incidental homosexual reactions or experi-
ence (ratings 2-6). Bottom figure, 164, shows percent of single males who have as much
as or more homosexual than heterosexual reactions or experience (ratings 3-6), in each
year.
Figures 165-167. Active incidence curves: heterosexual-homosexual ratings, by
age and educational level, among single males
Top figure, 165, shows percent of single males who have more homosexual than
heterosexual reactions or experience (ratings 4-6) in each year. Middle figure, 166,
shows percent of single males who have more or less exclusively homosexual reactions
or experience (ratings 5-6). Bottom figure, 167, shows percent of single males who are
exclusively homosexual (rating 6) in each year.
645
646
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual - Homosexual Rating : Active Incidence
Married White Males — Educ . Level 0-8
X
0
1
2
3
4
%
%
%
%
%
%
18
68
0.0
85.3
4.4
7.4
2.9
0.0
19
103
0.0
91.3
1,9
3.9
2.9
0.0
20
134
0.0
90.3
2.2
3.0
4.5
0.0
21
181
0.0
90.1
2.2
5.5
2.2
0.0
22
223
0.0
88.8
3.6
5.8
1.8
0.0
23
222
0.0
91.8
2.3
4.1
1.8
0.0
24
228
0.0
91.2
3.1
3.5
2.2
0.0
25
238
0.0
92.0
1.7
4.2
1.7
0.4
26
223
0.0
96.0
1.8
1.8
0.4
0.0
27
232
0.0
92.7
3.4
3.0
0.9
0.0
28
232
0.0
92.7
2.2
4.7
0.4
0.0
29
209
0.0
93.3
1.4
4.3
1.0
0.0
30
207
0.0
94.7
1.4
2.9
1.0
0.0
31
194
0.0
92.8
3.1
3.1
1.0
0.0
32
192
0.0
91.2
3.6
3.6
1.6
0.0
33
179
0.0
92.7
1.7
3.9
1.7
0.0
34
177
0.0
93.8
1.7
4.5
0.0
0.0
35
162
0.0
95.7
0.6
3.7
0.0
0.0
36
157
i 0.6
93.0
3.2
3.2
0.0
0.0
37
146
0.7
93.8
1.4
3.4
0.0
0.7
38
139
0.7
94,3
1.4
2.9
0.0
0.7
39
126
0.8
92.8
1.6
4.0
0.0
0.8
40
125
0.8
92.8
1.6
4.0
0.0
0.8
41
113
0.9
94.6
1.8
1.8
0.0
0.9
42
111
0.9
94.6
1.8
1.8
0.0
0.9
43
99
1,0
93.8
2.0
2.0
0.0
1.0
44
84
1.2
95.2
1.2
1.2
0.0
1.2
45
75
1.3
96.1
1.3
1.3
0.0
0.0
46
75
1.3
96.1
1.3
1.3
0.0
0.0
47
74
1.4
95.9
0.0
2.7
0.0
0.0
48
71
1.4
97.2
0.0
1.4
0.0
0.0
49
65
1.5
97.0
0.0
1.5
0.0
0.0
Table 144. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for married white males of grade
school level (0-8)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanings of the ratings X, 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of the population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
647
It will be observed that the rating which an individual receives has a
dual basis. It takes into account his overt sexual experience and/or his
psychosexual reactions. In the majority of instances the two aspects of
the history parallel, but sometimes they are not in accord. In the latter
case, the rating of an individual must be based upon an evaluation of the
relative importance of the overt and the psychic in his history.
In each classification there are persons who have had no experience or a
minimum of overt sexual experience, but in the same classification there
may also be persons who have had hundreds of sexual contacts. In every
case, however, all of the individuals in each classification show the same
balance between the heterosexual and homosexual elements in their his-
tories. The position of an individual on this scale is always based upon the
relation of the heterosexual to the homosexual in his history, rather than
upon the actual amount of overt experience or psychic reaction.
Finally, it should be emphasized again that the reality is a continuum,
with individuals in the population occupying not only the seven categories
which are recognized here, but every gradation between each of the cate-
gories, as well. Nevertheless, it does no great injustice to the fact to group
the population as indicated above.
From all of this, it should be evident that one is not warranted in recog-
nizing merely two types of individuals, heterosexual and homosexual, and
that the characterization of the homosexual as a third sex fails to describe
any actuality.
It is imperative that one understand the relative amounts of the hetero-
sexual and homosexual in an individual’s history if one is to make any
significant analysis of him. Army and Navy officials and administrators in
schools, prisons, and other institutions should be more concerned with the
degree of heterosexuality or homosexuality in an individual than they are
with the question of whether he has ever had an experience of either sort.
It is obvious that the clinician must determine the balance that exists
between the heterosexual and homosexual experience and reactions of his
patient, before he can begin to help him. Even courts of law might well
consider the totahty of the individual’s history, before passing judgment
on the particular instance that has brought him into the hands of the
law.
Everywhere in our society there is a tendency to consider an individual
“homosexual” if he is known to have had a single experience with another
individual of his own sex. Under the law an individual may receive the
same penalty for a single homosexual experience that he would for a
continuous record of experiences. In penal and mental institutions a male
is likely to be rated “homosexual” if he is discovered to have had a single
contact with another male. In society at large, a male who has worked out
648
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating: Active Incidence
Married White Males — Educ. Level 9-12
0
1
2
3
4
5
/o
%
%
%
%
/o
18
51
84.3
3.9
9.8
2.0
0.0
0.0
19
73
84.9
4.1
4.1
4.1
1.4
. 1.4
20
84
83.2
4.8
4.8
4.8
1.2
1.2
21
99
80.0
4.0
9.0
6.0
1.0
0.0
22
101
85.1
1.0
7.9
5.0
1.0
0.0
23
104
84.7
1.9
9.6
3.8
0.0
0.0
24
102
90.2
2.0
4.9
2.9
0.0
0.0
25
107
92.5
1.9
4.7
0.9
0.0
0.0
26
107
90.6
1.9
5.6
1.9
0.0
0.0
27
99
91.0
2.0
5.0
0.0
2.0
0.0
28
96
88.5
4.2
5.2
0.0
2.1
0.0
29
90
89.0
4.4
3.3
0.0
3.3
0.0
30
80
88.7
3.8
2.5
0.0
5.0
0.0
31
79
91.2
2.5
2.5
0.0
3.8
0.0
32
74
91.7
1.4
1.4
1.4
4.1
0.0
33
69
92.9
1.4
1.4
1.4
2.9
0.0
34
63
93.6
3.2
0.0
0.0
3.2
0.0
35
58
91.5
3.4
0.0
1.7
3.4
0.0
36
58
93.2
3.4
0.0
0.0
3.4
0.0
37
53
90.5
3.8
0.0
0.0
3.8
0.0
38
50
90.0
4.0
0.0
0.0
4.0
0.0
Table 145. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for married white males of high
school level (9-12)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanings of the ratings 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of thd population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
649
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating : Active Incidence
Married White Males — Educ. Level 13 +
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
20
59
%
0.0
%
96.6
%
0.0
%
3.4
%
0.0
%
0.0
%
0.0
%
0.0
21
97
0.0
91.7
5.2
2.1
1.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
22
172
0.0
90.1
5.8
2.3
0 6
0.0
1.2
0.0
23
221
0.0
90.9
4.5
1.8
1.4
0.9
0.5
0.0
24
278
0.4
91.9
3.6
2.2
0.7
0.4
0.4
0.4
25
‘ 330
0.0
91.3
4.8
1.8
0.9
0.6
0.3
0.3
26
378
0.0
93.4
4.2
0.8
0.5
0.5
0.3
0.3
27
391
0.0
91.5
5.9
0.5
0.8
0.3
0.5
0.5
28
392
0.0
90.0
5.9
1.5
1.3
0.3
0.5
0.5
29
385
0.0
90.4
6.2
1.6
1.0
0.3
0.5
0.0
30
386
0.0
89.9
7.3
1.0
0.8
0.5
0.5
0.0
31
387
0.0
91.0
5.9
1.1
0.8
0.8
0.5
0.0
32
366
0.0
90,7
6.6
1.1
0.8
0.5
0.0
0.0
33
340
0.0
91.1
5.9
1.8
0.6
0.6
0.0
0.0
34
323
0.0
89.8
7.1
1.9
0.6
0.6
0.0
0.0
35
300
0.0
90.2 1
5.7
2.7
0.7
0.7
0.0
0.0
36
283
0.0
90.5
5.3
2.8
0.7
0.7
0.0
0.0
37
248
0.0
90 8
4.8
2.8
0.8
0.8
0.0
0.0
38
235
0,0
90.1
5.1
3.0
0.9
0.9
0.0
0.0
39
218
0.0
89,0
5.5
3.2
1.4
0.9
0.0
0.0
40
205
0.0
89.2
4.9
3.4
1.5
1.0
0.0
0.0
41
190
0.0
90.5
4.7
2.6
1.1
1.1
0.0
0.0
42
182
0.0
90.2
5.5
2.7
0.5
1.1
0.0
0.0
43
154
0.6
89.7
5.8
2.6
0.0
1.3
0.0
0.0
44
145
0.7
91.0
4.1
2.8
0.0
1.4
0.0
0.0
45
128
0.8
91.3
4.7
1.6
0.0
1.6
0.0
0.0
46
117
0.9
92.2
4.3
1.7
0.0
0.9
0.0
0.0
47
113
0.9
92.0
'4.4
1.8
0.0
0.9
0.0
0.0
48
97
1.0
90.7
6.2
2.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
49
93
2.2
90.2
5.4
2.2
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Table 146. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for married white males of the
college level (13+)
These are active incidence figures for each rating at each age. For an explanation of
the meanmgs of the ratings X, 0, 1, etc., see the accompanying text. If the percentages
are added from the right-hand side of each line, the cumulated percents will show the
portion of the population which rates 1 or more, or 2 or more, etc., in each age period.
650
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
a highly successful marital adjustment is likely to be rated “homosexual”
if the community learns about a single contact that he has had with another
male. All such misjudgments are the product of the tendency to categorize
sexual activities under only two heads, and of a failure to recognize the
endless gradations that actually exist.
From all of this, it becomes obvious that any question as to the number of
persons in the world who are homosexual and the number who are hetero-
sexual is unanswerable. It is only possible to record the number of those
who belong to each of the positions on such a heterosexual-homosexual
scale as is given above. Summarizing our data on the incidence of overt
homosexual experience in the white male population (Tables 139 - 140 , and
Figures 156 - 1 58 ) and the distribution of various degrees of heterosexual-
homosexual balance in that population (Tables 141 - 150 , Figures 162 - 170 ),
the following generalizations may be made:
37 per cent of the total male population has at least some overt homosexual
experience to the point of orgasm between adolescence and old age (Figure 156).
This accounts for nearly 2 males out of every 5 that one may meet.
50 per cent of the males who remain single until age 35 have had overt homo-
sexual experience to the point of orgasm, since the onset of adolescence
(Figure 156).
58 per cent of the males who belong to the group that goes into high school but
not beyond, 50 per cent of the grade school level, and 47 per cent of the college
level have had homosexual experience to the point of orgasm if they remain
single to the age of 35 (Figure 158).
63 per cent of all males never have overt homosexual experience to the point
of orgasm after the onset of adolescence (Figure 156).
50 per cent of all males (approximately) have neither overt nor psychic experi-
ence in the homosexual after the onset of adolescence (Figures 162-167).
13 per cent of the males (approximately) react erotically to other males without
having overt homosexual contacts after the onset of adolescence.
30 per cent of all males have at least incidental homosexual experience or
reactions (Le., rate 1 to 6) over at least a three-year period between the ages of
16 and 55. This accounts for one male out of every three in the population who
is past the early years of adolescence (Table 150, Figure 168).
25 per cent of the male population has more than incidental homosexual experi-
ence or reactions {Le., rates 2-6) for at least three years between the ages of 16
and 55. In terms of averages, one male out of approximately every four has had
or will have such distinct and continued homosexual experience.
18 per cent of the males have at least as much of the homosexual as the hetero-
sexual in their histories {Le,, rate 3-6) for at least three years between the ages
of 16 and 55. This is more than one in six of the white male population.
13 per cent of the population has more of the homosexual than the heterosexual
(Le., rates 4-6) for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55. This is one
in eight of the white male population.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
651
10 per cent of the males are more or less exclusively homosexual {Le., rate 5
or 6) for at least three years between the ages of 16 and 55. This is one male in
ten in the white male population.
8 per cent of the males are exclusively homosexual rate a 6) for at least
three years between the ages of 16 and 55. This is one male in every 13.
4 per cent of the white males are exclusively homosexual throughout their lives,
after the onset of adolescence (Table 150, Figure 168).
None of those who have previously attempted to estimate the incidence
of the homosexual have made any clear-cut definition of the degree of
homosexuality which they were including in their statistics. As a matter
of fact, it seems fairly certain that none of them had any clear-cut concep-
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating : Active Incidence
Total Population—U. S. Corrections
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
5 1
4297
%
90.6
%
4.2
%
0.2
%
0.3
%
1.2
%
0.3
7o
0.2
%
3.0
10
4296
61.1
10.8
1.7
3.6
5.6
1.3
0 5
15.4
15
4284
23.6
48.4
3.6
6.0
4.7
3.7
2.6
7.4
20
3467
3.3
69.3
4.4
7.4
4.4
2.9
3.4
4.9
25
1835
1.0
79.2
3.9
5.1
3.2
2.4
2.3
2.9
30
1192
0.5
83.1
4.0
3.4
2.1
3.0
1.3
2.6
35
844
0.4
86.7
2.4
3.4 1
1.9
1.7
0.9
2.6
40
576
1.3
86.8
3.0
3.6 1
2.0
0.7
0.3
2.3
45
382
2.7
88.8
2.3
2.0
1.3
0.9
0.2
1.8
Table 147. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings for all white males
These are active incidence figures for the entire white male population, including
single, married, and post-marital histories, the final figure corrected for the distribution
of the population in the U. S. Census of 1940. For further explanations see the legend
for Table 141.
tion of what they intended, other than their assurance that they were in-
cluding only those “who were really homosexual.” For that reason it is
useless to compare the 2 or 3 per cent figure of Havelock Ellis, or the 2 to
5 per cent figure of Hirschfeld, or the 0.1 per cent figure of the Army
induction centers with any of the data given above. The persons who are
identified as “homosexuals” in much of the legal and social practice have
rated anything between 1 and 6 on the above scale. On the other hand, there
are some persons who would not rate an individual as “really homosexual”
if he were anything less than a 5 or 6. Nevertheless, it should be emphasized
again that there are persons who rate 2’s or 3’s who, in terms of the
number of contacts they have made, may have had more homosexual
experience than many persons who rate 6, and the clinician, the social
652
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
AGE
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Rating: Active Incidence
Cumulated Percents
X 1 0 1+
2+ 1 3+ 4+
1 5+ 1 6
Single Males — ^Educ. Level 0-8
%
%
%
%
%
%
%
°/
/o
15 i
803
32.0
42.1
25.9
23.2
17.0
11.9
9.2
7.7
20
473
9.3
65.1
25.6
22.4
14.8
9.1
6.6
5.1
25
187
4.8
59,9
35.3
28.3
19.2
10.1
6.9
5.3
30
107
1.9
53.2
44.9
38.4 1
27.2 '
14.1
9.4
7.5
35
68
2.9
58.8
38.3
36.8
25.0
11.8
10.3
4.4
Single Males — ^Educ. Level 9-12
15
629
19.9 j
48.6
31.5
27.2
20.7
15.9
11.3
7.8
20
350
2.0
57.0
41.0
35.6
24.7
20.1
15.2
8.6
25
140
0.7
50.8
48.5
42.1
36.4
30.7
21.4
10.7
30
67
1.5
46.2
52.3
43.3
40.3
37.3
26.9
17.9
Single Males — Educ. Level 13+
15
2846
22.3 i
59.1
18.6
15.3
12.4
9.6
6.9
5.5
20
2306
3.9
80.6
15.5
9.9
7.3
6.0
4.2
2.3
25
687
3.3
75.5
21.2
15.7
13.4
12.1
8.8
4.7
30
179
4.5
64.7
30.8
26.3
25.7
25.1
22.3
12.8
35
71
7.0
55.0
38.0
32.4
32.4
31.0
28.2
19.7
Married Males — ^Educ. Level 0-8
20
134
0.0
90.3
9.7
7.5
4.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
25
238
0.0
92.0
8.0
6.3
2.1
0.4
0.0
0.0
30
207
0.0
94.7
5.3
3.9
1.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
35
162
0.0
95.7
4.3
3.7
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
40
125
0.8
92.8
6.4
4.8
0.8
0.8
0.0
0.0
45
75
1.3
96.1
2.6
1.3
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
Married Males — ^Educ. Level 13 +
20
59
0.0
96.6
3.4
3.4
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
25
330
0.0
91.3
8.7
3.9
2.1
1.2
0.6
0.3
30
386
0.0
89.9
10.1
2.8
1.8
1.0
0.5
0.0
35
300
0.0
90.2
9.8
4.1
1.4
0.7
0.0
0.0
40
205
0.0
89.2
10.8
5.9
2.5
1.0
0.0
0.0
45
128
0.8
91.3
1
7.9
3.2
1.6
1.6
0.0
0.0
Total Population: Single, Married — All Educ. Levels
15
4284
23.6
48.4
28.0
24.4
18.4
13.7
10.0
7.4
20
3467
3.3
69.3
27.4
23.0
15.6
11.2
8.3
4.9
25
1835
1.0
79.2
19.8
15.9
10.8
7.6
5.2
2.9
30
1192
0 5
83.1
16.4
12.4
9.0
6.9
3.9
2.6
35
844
0.4
86.7
12.9
10.5
7.1
5.2
3.5
2.6
40
576
1.3
86.8
11.9
8.9 ’
5.3 !
3.3
2.6
2.3
45
382
2.7
88.8
8.5
6.2
4.2
2.9 1
2.0
1.8
Table 148. Cumulated percents of heterosexual-homosexual ratings
Based on Tables 141-147, cumulated from the right-hand end of each line. See
accompanying text for definitions of ratings X, 0, 1, 2, etc. Data for adult males (at
ages 15, 20, 25, 30, etc.), for single and married groups of each educational level and of
total population. Shows percent of each group which rates 1 or more, 2 or more, 3 or
more, etc., in each of the given years.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
653
Heterosexual-Homosexual Ratings: Accumulative Incidence
All Males, Single and Married
CURRENT RATING
HIGHEST RATINGS FOR ANY 3 YEARS SINCE 1 6
X
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Educ. Level 0-8
1
%
7o
%
%
%
%
%
%
16-20
712
11.2
64.4
2.9
8.2
5.2
2.2
1.7
4.2
16-25
557
3.8
73.7
2.9
7.5
5.9
1.4
1.4
3.4
16-30
462
1.1
77.7
2.8
7,6
4.5
1.3
1.1
3.9
16-35
357
0.8
80.1
2.8
6.2
4.2
1.4
1.1
3.4
16^0
288
0.3
83.7
1.4
5.9
3.5
1.0
0.7
3.5
16^5
205
0.5
84.8
1.0
5.4
2.4
1.5
0.5
3.9
16-50
147
0.7
84.9
1.4
4.8
2.0
0.7
0.7
4.8
16-55
98
1.0
84.8
0.0
5.1
2.0
1.0
1.0
5.1
Educ. Level 9-12
16-20
584
2.7
61,2
5.3
! 10.4
4.8
5.0
3.4
7.2
16-25
347
0.9
63.4
4.9
8.1
4.9
4.9
4.0
8.9
16-30
238
0.4
67.2
4.6
5.9
3.4
4.2
3.4
10.9
16-35
148
0.0
70.3
4.7
6.1
3.4
2.7
2.0
10.8
16-40
92
0.0
72.8
4.3
4.3
3.3
3.3
1.1
10.9
16-45
61
0.0
77.1
3.3
3.3
1.6
3 3
1.6
9.8
Educ. Level 13+
16-20
2979
5.3
80.3
3.8
2,4
1.7
2.1
1.9
2.5
16-25
1635
2.1
80.1
4.3
2.5
1.3
2.9
2.7
4.1
16-30
876
1.4
77.8
4.6
2.1 ,
1.7
2.6
3.4
6.4
16-35
552
1.1
80.7
4.2
2,4
1.1
2.5
2.0
6.0
16-40
375
0.5
81.4
4.5
1.3
0.8
2.1
2.2
7.2
16-45
218
0.5
82.1
6.0
1.8
0.9
0.9
1.8
6.0
16-50
132
0.0
87.1
4.5
2.3
1.5
0.8
0.0
3.8
16-55
74
0.0
86.5
4.1
2.7
!
1.3
1.3
0.0
4.1
Total Population — U. S. Correction
16-20
4275
5.7
64.8
4.4
8.6
4.5
3.7
2.7
5.6
16-25
2539
2.0
69.0
4.2
7.1
4.7
3.5
3.0
6.5
16-30
1576
0.8
72.7
3.9
6.0
3.6
2.9
2.5
7.6
16-35
1057
0.5
76.3
3.8
5.6
3.4
2.1
1.6
6.7
16-40
755
0.2
79.9
2.7
4.8
3.1
1.9
1.0
6.4
16-45
484
0.4
82.3
2.2
4.4
2.0
1.9
1.0
5.8
16-50
318
0.5
83.8
2.6
4.0
2.1
1.1
0.5
5.4
16-55
191
0.7
85.0
1.4
4.9
1.5
0.8
0.7
5.0
Table 149. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings: accumulative incidence for each
rating
Showing percents of each population which have ever held the shown rating for at
least three years between 16 and the age shown in column 1. By eliminatmg both pre-
adolescent and early adolescent years from the calculations, and by limiting the table
to cases which have had at least three years of homosexual ratings, the table has been
limited to defimtely adult and pronouncedly homosexual experience of the degree
shown by each rating. See Table 150 for cumulated percents derived from this table.
AGE
PERIOD
CASES
Heterosexual-Homosexual Ratings: Accumulative Incidence
All Males, Single or Married
current rating
cumulated percents
highest ratings for any 3 YEARS SINCE 16
X
0
1-6
2-6
3-6
4-6
5-6
6
Educ. Level 0-8
%
7o
%
%
0/
/o
%
%
y
/o
16-20
712
11.2
64.4
24.4
21.5
13.3
8.1
5.9
4.2
16-25
557
3.8
73.7
22.5
19.6
12.1
6.2
4.8
3.4
16-30
462
1.1
77.7
21.2
18.4
10.8
6.3
5.0
3.9
16-35
357
0.8
80.1
19.1
16.3
10.1
5.9
4.5
3.4
16-40
288
0.3
83.7
16.0
14.6
8.7
5.2
4.2
3.5
16-45
205
0.5
84.8
14.7
13.7
8.3
5.9
4.4
3.9
16-50
147
0.7
84.9
14.4
13.0
8.2
6.2
5.5
4.8
16-55
98
1.0
84.8
14.2
14.2
9.1
7.1
6.1
5.1
Educ. Level 9-12
16-20
584
2.7
61.2
36.1
30 8
20.4
15 6
10.3
7.2
16-25 !
347
0.9
63.4
35.7 1
30.8 !
22.7
17.8 :
12.9
8.9
16-30 i
238
0.4
67.2
32.4
27.8 i
21.9
18.5
14.3
10.9
16-35
148
0.0 1
70.3
29,7 1
25.0
18.9
15.5 i
12.8
10.8
16-40
92
0.0
72.8
27.2
22.9 i
18.6
15.3 1
12.0
10.9
16-45
61
0.0 1
77.1
22,9 1
19.6 i
16.3
14.7 1
11.4
9.8
Educ. Level li-f
16-20
2979
5.3
80 3
14.4
10.6
8.2
6.5
4.4
2.5
16-25
1635
2.1
80.1
17.8
13.5
11.0
9.7
6.8
4.1
16-30
876
1.4
77.8
20.8
16.2
14.1
12.4
9.8
6.4
16-35
552
1.1
80.7
18.2
14.0
11.6
10.5
8.0
6.0
16-40
375
0.5
81.4
18.1
13.6
12.3
11.5
9.4
7.2
16-45
218
0.5
82.1
17.4
11.4
i 9.6
8.7
7.8
6.0
16-50
132
0.0
87.1
12.9
8.4
6.1
4.6
3.8
3.8
16-55
74
0.0
86.5
13.5
9.4
6.7
5.4
4.1
4.1
Total Population — ^U. S. Corrections
16-20
4275
5.7
64.8 i
29.5
25.1
16.5
12.0
8.3
5.6
16-25
2539
2.0
69.0
29.0
24.8
17.7
13.0
9.5
6.5
16-30
1576
0.8
72.7
26.5
22.6
16.6
13.0
10.1
7.6
16-35
1057
0.5
76.3
23.2
19.4
13.8
10.4
8.3
6.7
16-40
755
0.2
79.9
19.9
17.2
12.4
9.3
7.4
6.4
16-45
484
0.4
82.3
17.3
15.1
10.7
8.7
6.8
5.8
16-50
318
0.5 1
83.8
15.7
13.1
9.1
7.0
5.9
5.4
16-55
191
0.7 i
85.0
14.3
12.9
8.0
6.5
5.7
5.0
Total U. S. Population — Corrected for All Ages
16-55
4275
1.5
75.6
22.9
19.6
13.7
10.4
8.0
6.2
Table 150. Heterosexual-homosexual rating: cumulated percents on each rating
Derived from Table 149. Showing percents of each population which have rated
'*at least a I,’’ “at least a 2,” “at least a 3,” etc., for at least 3 years between 16 and
the age shown in column 1. The final line of figures, for the total U. S. population
corrected for all ages, shows how many males in any population may be expected to
have ratings of each sort.
654
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
655
worker, court officials, and society in general are not infrequently con-
cerned with persons who rate no more than 2’s or 3’s. Many who rate only
1 or 2 are much disturbed over their homosexual experience, and they are
frequently among those who go to clinicians for help.
Finally, it should be emphasized that the social significance of an indi-
vidual’s history may or may not have any relation to his rating on the above
scale. An older male who has never before had homosexual contact, may
Figure 168. Accumulative incidence of heterosexual-homosexual ratings in
total male population (single and married), by age periods
Based on U. S. Corrected data. Based only on ratings held by each individual for a
period of at least three years. All accumulative incidence curves should rise; these drop
in older age periods because (1) yoxmger males today may be more often involved in
homosexual activity, or (2) older males forget their earlier experience, or (3) older males
deliberately cover up their homosexual experience. Certainly the data for the earlier
age periods are the most reliable.
force a sexual relation with a small boy; and although he rates only a 1,
he may so outrage the community that the full force of the law may be
stirred up against him. On the contrary, most persons who rate I’s have
histories which do not disturb anybody. At the other end of the scale,
some of the exclusively homosexual males may so confine their overt
contacts that no social problems are raised, while others who also rate 6
are active wolves who are in continual trouble because of their open
affronts to social conventions.
22
656
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
BISEXUALITY
Since only 50 per cent of the population is exclusively heterosexual
throughout its adult life, and since only 4 per cent of the population is
exclusively homosexual throughout its hfe, it appears that nearly half
(46%) of the population engages in both heterosexual and homosexual
activities, or reacts to persons of both sexes, in the course of their adult
lives. The term bisexual has been applied to at least some portion of this
group. Unfortunately, the term as it has been used has never been strictly
delimited, and consequently it is impossible to know whether it refers to
all individuals who rate anything from 1 to 5, or whether it is being limited
X 0 1-6 2-6 3-6 4-6 5-6 6
Figure 169. Heterosexual-homosexual ratings in total male population (single
and married) in any single year
Based on U. S. Corrected data (last line of Table 150). Passing experiences eliminated
from data by showing only ratings which have involved a period of at least three years
after the males turned 16. Percent shown as “X” have no socio-sexual contacts or
reactions.
to some smaller number of categories, perhaps centering around group 3.
If the latter is intended, it should be emphasized that the Ts, 2’s, 4’s, and
5’s have not yet been accounted for, and they constitute a considerable
portion of the population.
In any event, such a scheme provides only a three-point scale (hetero-
sexual, bisexual, and homosexual), and such a limited scale does not
adequately describe the continuum which is the reality in nature. A seven-
point scale comes nearer to showing the many gradations that actually
exist.
As previously pointed out, it is rather unfoftimate that the word bisexual
should have been chosen to describe this intermediate group. The term is
used as a substantive, designating individuals — ^persons; and the root mean-
658
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
typical female in the population. Where a single individual combines
in its one person the primary sex characters of two sexes (namely, the
ovaries a;id the testes), it is recognized as a hermaphrodite. Where the
secondary sexual characters of an individual are in part the unmodified
characters of one sex, and in part the characters of the other sex, the
individual is known as a gynandromorph, A gynandromorphic insect may
have the head coloration that is typical of one sex and the thoracic colora-
tion that is typical of the other sex. An intersex, on the contrary, has a
portion or the whole of its structures intermediate in character between
the structures of the typical male or the female of the species. In the case
of Goldschmidt’s gypsy moths, the females are typically large, the males
Figure 170. Development of heterosexuality and homosexuality by age periods
Active incidence curves, corrected for U. S. population. Males with no socio-sexual
response (rating X) rapidly disappear between the ages of 5 and 20. Males whose
responses are chiefly heterosexual (rating 0 or 1) rapidly increase in number until they
ultimately account for 90 per cent of the whole population. Males who are more than
incidentally homosexual in response or overt activity (ratings 2-6) are most abundant
in pre-adolescence and through the teens, gradually becoming less abundant with
advancing age.
typically smaller. The intersexual individuals show gradations in size
between the larger female and smaller male. The typical female of the
gypsy moth is buff yellow, the male is white. The intersexes show various
grades of color between yellow and white. A gynandromorph might have
one wing yellow and one wing white, one wing large and one wing small,
but the intersexes have wings that are intermediate in size and color.
In spite of the fact that Goldschmidt himself (1916) accepted the idea
that the homosexual human male or female was an intersex, there is no
adequate basis for reaching any such conclusion. Those who have accepted
this interpretation have assumed without asking for specific evidence that
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
659
an individual’s choice of a sexual partner is affected by some basic physi-
ologic capacity. No work that has been done on hormones or on any other
physiologic capacities of the human animal justifies such a conclusion
(Kinsey 1941). Goldschmidt and others who have thought of the homo-
sexual individual as an intersex have relied upon incidence figures which
were pure guesses and which, as the data in the present chapter will show,
bear little relation to the fact as it has now been ascertained.
There are a few males in whom the urethra opens on the under surface
of the penis. Such a condition is known as a hypospadia. The most extreme
confusion of biological ideas has come from the identification of these
hypospadiac males as intersexes who are predisposed to be homosexual
in their behavior. However, an investigation of the embryonic develop-
ment of the male penis (Arey 1924, 1946, Patten 1946) will show that a
hypospadia is nothing more than a failure in the closure of the urethra at
the end of normal embryonic development, and has no relation whatsoever
to the genetic maleness or femaleness of the individual, nor to the endo-
crine constitution of the individual. As our own histories of hypospadiac
individuals definitely show, such malformations have nothing to do with
their choice of sexual partners unless, as in some extreme cases among
ignorant and uneducated persons, the sexual identity of the individual is
confused and he is raised in the clothing and the traditions of the opposite
sex. In popular parlance such individuals are commonly called “mor-
phodites,” but the designation is incorrect, for a true hermaphrodite, as
we have already pointed out, has functioning gonads of both sexes within
its one body. It is, of course, in the same way that a female with a large
clitoris is sometimes called a hermaphrodite. Sometimes the term intersex
has been apphed to such females (Dickinson 1933); but until more is
known about the biological basis of this situation, it is not certain that
the term intersex should be apphed even in these cases.
SCIENTIFIC AND SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS
In view of the data which we now have on the incidence and frequency
of the homosexual, and in particular on its co-existence with the hetero-
sexual in the fives of a considerable portion of the male population, it is
diflScult to maintain the view that psychosexual reactions between indi-
viduals of the same sex are rare and therefore abnormal or unnatural, or
that they constitute within themselves evidence of neuroses or even
psychoses.
If homosexual activity persists on as large a scale as it does, in the face
of the very considerable public sentiment against it and in spite of the
severity of the penalties that our Anglo-American culture has placed upon
it through the centuries, there seems some reason for believing that such
activity would appear in the histories of a much larger portion of the
660
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
population if there were no social restraints. The very general occurrence
of the homosexual in ancient Greece (Licht 1925, 1926, 1928, 1932), and
its wide occurrence today in some cultures in which such activity is not as
taboo as it is in our own, suggests that the capacity of an individual to
respond erotically to any sort of stimulus, whether it is provided by another
person of the same or of the opposite sex, is basic in the species. That
patterns of heterosexuality and patterns of homosexuality represent
learned behavior which depends, to a considerable degree, upon the mores
of the particular culture in which the individual is raised, is a possibility
that must be thoroughly considered before there can be any acceptance of
the idea that homosexuality is inherited, and that the pattern for each
individual is so innately fixed that no modification of it may be expected
within his lifetime.
The opinion that homosexual activity in itself provides evidence of a
psychopathic personahty is materially challenged by these incidence and
frequency data. Of the 40 or 50 per cent of the male population which has
homosexual experience, certainly a high proportion would not be con-
sidered psychopathic personalities on the basis of anything else in their
histories. It is argued that an individual who is so obtuse to social reactions
as to continue his homosexual activity and make it any material portion
of his life, therein evidences some social incapacity; but psychiatrists and
clinicians in general might very well re-examine their justification for
demanding that aU persons conform to particular patterns of behavior.
As a matter of fact, there is an increasing proportion of the most skilled
psychiatrists who make no attempt to re-direct behavior, but who devote
their attention to helping an individual accept himself, and to conduct
himself in such a manner that he does not come into open conflict with
society.
There are, of course, some persons with homosexual histories who are
neurotic and in constant difficulty with themselves and not infrequently
with society. That is also true of some persons with heterosexual histories.
Some homosexual individuals are so upset that they have difficulty in the
accomplishment of their business or professional obhgations and reach
the point where they find it difficult to make the simplest sort of social
contact without friction. It is, however, a considerable question whether
these persons have homosexual histories because they are neurotic, or
whether their neurotic disturbances are the product of their homosexual
activities and of society’s reaction to them. These are matters that must be
investigated in more detail in a later volume; but they are questions that
become more significant when one realizes the actual extent of homosexual
behavior.
Factors Accounting for the Homosexual. Attempts to identify the biologic
bases of homosexual activity, must take into account the large number of
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
661
males who have demonstrated their capacity to respond to stimuli pro-
vided by other persons of the same sex. It must also be taken into account
that many males combine in their single histories, and very often in exactly
the same period of time, or even simultaneously in the same moment,
reactions to both heterosexual and homosexual stimuli. They must take
into account that in these combinations of heterosexual and homosexual
experience, there is every conceivable gradation between exclusively hetero-
sexual histories and exclusively homosexual histories. It must be shown
that the fluctuations in preferences for female or male partners are related
to fluctuations in the hormones, the genes, or the other biologic factors
which are assumed to be operating (Kinsey 1941). It must be shown that
there is a definite correlation between the degree in which the biologic
factor operates, and the degree of the heterosexual-homosexual balance
in the history of each individual.
If psychologic or social forces are considered as agents in the origin of
the homosexual, the same sorts of correlations must be shown before any
causal relationship is established. An infrequent phenomenon might be
accounted for by factors of one sort, but the factors which account for the
homosexual must be of such an order as the incidence and frequency data
show this phenomenon to be in our culture. Moreover, it should be em-
phasized that it is one thing to account for an all-or-none proposition, as
heterosexuality and homosexuality have ordinarily been taken to be. But
it is a totally different matter to recognize factors which will account for
the continuum which we find existing between the exclusively heterosexual
and the exclusively homosexual history.
Whatever factors are considered, it must not be forgotten that the basic
phenomenon to be explained is an individual’s preference for a partner
of one sex, or for a partner of the other sex, or his acceptance of a partner
of either sex. This problem, is after all, part of the broader problem of
choices in general: the choice of the road that one takes, of the clothes
that one wears, of the food that one eats, of the place in which one sleeps,
and of the endless other things that one is constantly choosing. A choice
of a partner in a sexual relation becomes more significant only because
society demands that there be a particular choice in this matter, and does
not so often dictate one’s choice of food or of clothing.
Hereditary Bases of Homosexuality. Through a brilliant series of studies,
Goldschmidt showed the hereditary bases of intersexes among insects. It
is unfortunate, however, that he identified homosexual males and females
in the human species as intersexes, and thereby reached the conclusion
that there must be a hereditary basis for homosexuality (Goldschmidt
1916). The argument in his original paper was based on nothing more
than an analogy between the intermediate secondary sexual characters
which he found in the insects, and what he assumed to be intermediate
662
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
characters in the psychology of the homosexual human individual. From
this analogy he reasoned that there must be an inheritance of the human
behavior phenomenon, just as there is inheritance of the morphologic
structures which constitute the intersexuality of moths. With this idea of
the inheritance of heterosexuality or homosexuality, a number of other
workers have agreed. We are not ready at this time to discuss these data
in detail, but we may point out that the incidence data and the record of
gradations between exclusively heterosexual and exclusively homosexual
histories which have been presented in the present chapter, have consider-
able significance in this question of heredity.
In order to prove that homosexual patterns of behavior are inherited
in the human animal, the following conditions would need to be ful-
filled:
1. It would be necessary to define strictly what is meant in the study by
the term homosexual. The term should be limited to persons of particular
position on the heterosexual-homosexual scale; but whatever the restric-
tions of the original study the conclusions should finally be applicable to
all persons who have ever had any homosexual experience.
2. There should be a determination of the incidence of the phenomenon
in groups of siblings in which the complete sexual history of every indi-
vidual in each family is known. It would be very desirable to secure com-
plete histories of all the sibhngs in each family for at least two successive
generations. As far as we are aware, such an accumulation of complete
histories has never been available in any study of the inheritance of the
homosexual.
3. Especial attention should be paid to the balance between the homo-
sexual and the heterosexual behavior in the histories of each of the siblings
in such a study.
4. The recognition of homosexuality in any individual should not be
considered sufficient unless a complete sexual history is available. In
considering the histories of relatives and ancestors, the pubhshed studies
have put too much reliance upon suspicion, gossip, or the accidental
pubhc disclosure of homosexual activity. In no instance has there been
any sufficient regard for the fact that these relatives, who may, indeed, have
had homosexual experience, may also have had heterosexual experience
and rated anything between 1 and 6 on the heterosexual-homosexual
scale.
5. Similarly, the heterosexuality of any individual who enters into the
calculations should be determined through complete sex histories. In
nearly all studies to date, heterosexuality has been assumed where there
was marriage or other known relations with the opposite sex, and when
there was no public knowledge of homosexuality. These are, of course,
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET 663
untrustworthy sources of information on such a socially taboo item of
behavior as is involved here.
6. There should be data on enough cases of siblings to be statistically
significant. In view of the experience in the present study (Chapter 3), it
may be necessary to have histories from several hundred individuals in
order to obtain satisfactory results.
7. The incidence of the homosexual, as it is defined in the study, should
be shown to be higher among siblings than it is in the histories of the non-
siblings in the study. Inasmuch as our present data indicate that more
than a third (37%) of the white males in any population (or probably, for
that matter, among anyone’s ancestors) have had at least some homosexual
experience, and inasmuch as the data indicate that a quarter of the males
in the population (and a quarter of the males in anyone’s ancestry) may
have more than incidental homosexual experience in the course of their
lives, it would be necessary to show that the incidence of the homosexual
in groups of siblings is higher than that. This, of course, has never been
shown in any study on the inheritance of the homosexual.
8. Whatever the hereditary mechanisms which are proposed, they must
allow for the fact that some individuals change from exclusively hetero-
sexual to exclusively homosexual patterns in the course of their lives, or
vice versa, and they must allow for frequent changes in ratings of individ-
uals on the heterosexual-homosexual scale.
Social Applications. It is obvious that social interpretations of the homo-
sexual behavior of any individual may be materially affected by a considera-
tion of what is now known about the behavior of the population as a whole.
Social reactions to the homosexual have obviously been based on the
general belief that a deviant individual is unique and as such needs special
consideration. When it is recognized that the particular boy who is dis-
covered in homosexual relations in school, the business man who is having
such activity, and the institutional inmate with a homosexual record, are
involved in behavior that is not fundamentally different from that had by
a fourth to a third of all of the rest of the population, the activity of the
single individual acquires a somewhat different social significance.
One of the factors that materially contributes to the development of
exclusively homosexual histories, is the ostracism which society imposes
upon one who is discovered to have had perhaps no more than a lone
experience. The high school boy is likely to be expelled from school and,
if it is in a small town, he is almost certain to be driven from the com-
munity. His chances for making heterosexual contacts are tremendously
reduced after the public disclosure, and he is forced into the company of
other homosexual individuals among whom he finally develops an exclu-
sively homosexual pattern for himself. Every school teacher and principal
664
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
who is faced with the problem of the individual boy should realize that
something between a quarter and a third of all the other boys in the same
high school have had at least some homosexual experience since they turned
adolescent.
Community gossip and reactions to rumors of homosexual activity in
the history of some member of the community would probably be modified
if it were kept in mind that the same individual may have a considerable
heterosexual element in his history as well. The social worker who is
inchned to label a particular boy or older male in her case load as homo-
sexual, because he is known to have had some such activity, should keep
in mind that there is every gradation between complete homosexuality
and complete heterosexuality. Administrators in institutions, officials in
the Army and Navy, and many other persons in charge of groups of males
may profitably consider the balance between the heterosexual and homo-
sexual in an individual’s history, rather than the homosexual aspects
alone.
Administrators of penal and mental institutions are often much disturbed
over the problem presented by a male who is committed for a homosexual
offense. Such an individual is likely to receive especially severe treatment
from the officials in the institution, and he may be segregated as a potential
menace to the rest of the inmate body. If it is an institution in which trained
psychologists or psychiatrists are employed, they are likely to give especial
attention to the half dozen cases who are sent to the institution each year,
on such charges. Our surveys in institutions, however, indicate that 25 or
30 per cent of all the inmates have had homosexual experience before
admission. It is obvious that the male who happens to be sent in on a
homosexual charge may present no more special problem to the institution
in this regard than the other quarter or third of the inmate body, who
might just as well have been sent in on such a charge. As far as the admin-
istration of a custodial institution is concerned, the problem of discipline
does not depend upon the control of individuals who have some homo-
sexual experience in their history, as much as it does upon the control of
men who are particularly aggressive in forcing other individuals into homo-
sexual relations.
The judge who is considering the case of the male who has been arrested
for homosexual activity, should keep in mind that nearly 40 per cent of all
the other males in the town could be arrested at some time in their lives
for similar activity, and that 20 to 30 per cent of the unmarried males in
that town could have been arrested for homosexual activity that had taken
place within that same year. The court might also keep in mind that the
penal or mental institution to which he may send the male has something
between 30 and 85 per cent of its inmates engaging in the sort of homo-
sexual activity which may be involved in the individual case before him.
HOMOSEXUAL OUTLET
665
On the other hand, the judge who dismisses the homosexual case that
has come before him, or places the boy or adult on probation, may find
himself the subject of attack from the local press which charges him with
releasing dangerous “perverts’’ upon the community. Law enforcement
officers can utilize the findings of scientific studies of human behavior
only to the extent that the community will back them. Until the whole
community understands the realities of human homosexual behavior, there
is not likely to be much change in the -official handling of individual
cases.
The difficulty of the situation becomes still more apparent when it is
realized that these generalizations concerning the incidence and frequency
of homosexual activity apply in varying degrees to every social level, to
persons in every occupation, and of every age in the community. The
police force and court officials who attempt to enforce the sex laws, the
clergymen and business men and every other group in the city which peri-
odically calls for enforcement of the laws — particularly the laws against
sexual “perversion” — have given a record of incidences and frequencies
in the homosexual which are as high as those of the rest of the social level
to which they belong. It is not a matter of individual hypocrisy which
leads officials with homosexual histories to become prosecutors of the
homosexual activity in the community. They themselves are the victims
of the mores, and the public demand that they protect those mores. As
long as there are such gaps between the traditional custom and the actual
behavior of the population, such inconsistencies will continue to exist.
There are those who will contend that the immorality of homosexual
behavior calls for its suppression no matter what the facts are concerning
the incidence and frequency of such activity in the population. Some have
demanded that homosexuality be completely eliminated from society by a
concentrated attack upon it at every point, and the “treatment” or isola-
tion of all individuals with any homosexual tendencies. Whether such a
program is morally desirable is a matter on which a scientist is not qualified
to pass judgment; but whether such a program is physically feasible is a
matter for scientific determination.
The evidence that we now have on the incidence and frequency of homo-
sexual activity indicates that at least a third of the male population would
have to be isolated from the rest of the community, if all those with any
homosexual capacities were to be so treated. It means that at least 13 per
cent of the male population (rating 4 to 6 on the heterosexual-homosexual
scale), would have to be institutionalized and isolated, if all persons who
were predominantly homosexual were to be handled in that way. Since
about 34 per cent of the total population of the United States are adult
males, this means that there are about six and a third million males in the
country who would need such isolation.
666
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
If all persons with any trace of homosexual history, or those who were
predominantly homosexual, were eliminated from the population today,
there is no reason for believing that the incidence of the homosexual in
the next generation would be materially reduced. The homosexual has
been a significant part of human sexual activity ever since the dawn of
history, primarily because it is an expression of capacities that are basic
in the human animal.
Chapter 22
ANIMAL CONTACTS
To many persons it will seem almost axiomatic that two mating animals
should be individuals of the same species. This is so often true, from one
end of the animal kingdom to the other, that exceptions to the rule seem
especially worthy of note. To those who believe, as children do, that
conformance should be universal, any departure from the rule becomes an
immorality. The immorality seems particularly gross to ah individual who
is unaware of the frequency with which exceptions to the supposed rule
actually occur.
No biologist exactly understands why males of a species are attracted
primarily, even if not exclusively, to females of the same species. What is
there to prevent insects of one species from mating with insects of many
other species? What is there to prevent a frog from mating with frogs of
other species? Why should mammals mate only with mammals of their
own kind? In the animal kingdom as a whole, is it to be believed that
the sources of sexual attraction are of such a nature that they provide
stimuli only for other individuals of the same species? For the scientist it
does not suffice to be told that nature allows nothing else but intraspecific
mating because she considers reproduction to be the objective of all sexual
activities, and because the production of offspring is supposed to be im-
possible as a product of an interspecific cross. It does not suffice to think
of inner forces which draw individuals together in their sexual relations.
Such concepts concern intangibles with which science can have no dealing
and, in the last analysis, the biologist and psychologist must look for
material stimuli which, originating in one individual, may so affect other
individuals that mating is the inevitable consequence.
For instance, such specific stimuli are recognized in the odors emitted
by female moths; and they have been demonstrated to be the sources of
attraction for the males who come from considerable distances to congre-
gate around the female that emits the odors. Such specific stimuli are
recognized in the mating calls of toads and frogs, probably in the songs of
birds, in the odors which some female mammals produce and, among
the higher mammals, in the visual stimuli which the mere presence of an
individual may provide. There is a considerable literature on this subject,
but it needs to be analyzed with caution because so much of it is anthro-
pomorphic, arriving at the sort of interpretation that a human intelligence
667
66S
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
would expect to find if intraspecific mating were the only possibility in
nature.
Even the scientists have been considerably biased in their investigations
in this field, for they too have accepted the traditions. Even they have
believed that matings between individuals of different species occur only
rarely. Within the last few decades, however, students of taxonomy,
genetics, and evolution have had the existence of interspecific hybrids
increasingly drawn to their attention. These, of course, predicate the
existence of interspecific matings. Some biologists are clearly uncomfortable
in the face of these data, and are inclined to argue them away as they
would argue away blots on their philosophy or theology. Even among the
higher animals, interspecific crosses, or crosses between distinct varieties,
have increasingly become known. The bird banding work has shown that
birds respect the limits of their own species much less often than the old-
time naturahsts would have insisted. And, finally, the students of sexual
behavior among the higher mammals are beginning to report an increasing
number of instances of animals mating, or trying to mate, with individuals
of totally distinct and sometimes quite remote species (Nat. Res. Council
Conf on Mammalian Sex Behav. 1943, Beach 1947).
Fertile crosses between very distinct species are limited by microscopic
mechanisms which the students of genetics and of cell structure have
investigated in considerable detail. There is, however, no comparable
knowledge of factors which might prevent matings between specifically
distinct individuals. When one examines the observed cases of such crosses,
and especially the rather considerable number of instances in which pri-
mates, including man, have been involved, one begins to suspect that the
rules about intraspecific matings are not so universal as tradition would
have it. Indeed, one is struck anew with the necessity for better reasons
than biologists and psychologists have yet found, for expecting that animal
matings should invariably be limited to individuals of the same species.
In light of the above, it is particularly interesting to note the degree of
abhorrence with which intercourse between the human and animals of
other species is viewed by most persons who have not had such experience.
The biologist and the psychologist, and the anthropologist and the student
of history, will have made a significant contribution when they can expound
the development of our taboos on such contacts.
It is known, of course, that these taboos were weU-established in the
Old Testament and in the Talmud. Attention is also to be drawn to the
fact that in the older Hittite code (Barton 1925), which may have had
some influence on the Hebrew codes, the taboos on animal intercourse
were not clearly the moral issues that they subsequently came to be.
Specifically, in the Hittite code it is decreed that “if a man lie with a cow
the punishment is death.” “If a man lies with a hog or dog, he shall die.”
ANIMAL CONTACTS
669
“If a man . . . lies [with another, unidentified animal] the punishment is
death.” “If a bull rear upon a man, the bull shall die, but the man shall
not die.” “If a boar rear upon a man, there is no penalty.” “If a man lies
with a horse or mule, there is no penalty, but he shall not come near the
king, and he shall not become a priest.” These are proscriptions against
contacts with certain animals, while contacts with certain other animals
are more or less accepted. Such distinctions are strikingly paralleled by
the taboos which made certain foods clean and other foods unclean. The
student of human folkways is inclined to’see a considerable body of super-
stition in the origins of all such taboos, even though they may ultimately
become religious and moral issues for whole nations and whole races
of people.
In any event, it is certain that human contacts with animals of other
species have been known since the dawn of history, they are known among
all races of people today, and they are not uncommon in our own culture,
as the data in the present chapter will show. Far from being a matter for
surprise, the record simply substantiates our present understanding that
the forces which bring individuals of the same species together in sexual
relations, may sometimes serve to bring individuals of different species
together in the same types of sexual relations.
REFERENCES
Data on the incidence and frequency of sexual contacts between the
human male and animals of other species have already been detailed in
this volume in tables and charts, and in discussions in the text, as follows :
PAGE
174
TABLE
FIGURE
NATURE OF DATA
Pre-adolescent experience with animals
234
49
Range of variation in frequency of animal
contacts
260-262
59
Age affecting animal contacts
362-363
91
172
Educational level and animal contacts
378,
488-491
96
126, 128-130
Importance of animal intercourse as one
source of sexual outlet for single males
459-463
512
124
125
Relation of rural-urban background to
animal contacts
Masturbation, self and animal
669-673
151
171
Accumulative incidence of animal con-
tacts among single, rural males
670-674
173
Individual variation in frequencies of
animal contacts among rural males
INCIDENCES AND FREQUENCIES
The significance of animal contacts in the history of the human male
lies largely in the field of social values ; for there is no other type of sexual
activity which accounts for a smaller proportion of the total outlet of the
total population (Figures 126, 128-130). For that population, including both
670
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
single and married males, only a fraction of 1 per cent of the total number
of orgasms is derived from animal intercourse. In the period when such
contacts are most frequent, namely between adolescence and 20 years of
age, a little less than 1 per cent of the total outlet is so derived; but the
figure drops rapidly in successive age groups, and it amounts to only 0.04
per cent among those males who remain single after the age of 25 (Table 59).
In the total population, only one male in twelve or fourteen (estimated
at about 8%) ever has sexual experience with animals (Table 59). In this
total population, it is not more than 6 per cent which is involved in the
A6E
Figure 171. Animal contacts: accumulative incidence in single rural population
Showing percent of single rural males who have ever had sexual contacts with animals
to the point of orgasm, by each of the indicated ages. All data corrected for U. S. Census
distribution.
most active period (between adolescence and 20). The percentage drops in
successive age groups to a little more than 1 per cent in the early twenties,
and to a still lower figure at older ages.
Frequencies of animal contacts are similarly low in the population
taken as a whole. For most individuals, they do not occur more than once
or twice, or a few times in a lifetime.
On the other hand, the significance of such interspecific relationships
becomes more apparent if we confine the calculations simply to that
segment of the population which has access to animals, namely to the
males who are raised on farms. For that group, the incidences and fre-
quencies of animal contacts are more nearly comparable to the incidences
and frequencies of contacts with prostitutes, or of homosexual contacts,
in the population. There are a number of city-bred boys (4% between
adolescence and age 15 alone) who have animal contacts in their histories
(Table 124), and the fact that most of their experiences occur when they
ANIMAL CONTACTS
671
visit on farms suggests that the entire human male population might have
animal contacts as frequently as farm boys do if animals were available
to all of them.
Among boys raised on farms, about 17 per cent experience orgasm as
the product of animal contacts which occur sometime after the onset of
adolescence (Table 151, Figure 171). As many more have contacts which
do not result in orgasm, and there are still others who have pre-adolescent
experience which is not included in the above calculations. It is, in con-
sequence, something between 40 and 50 per cent of all farm boys who have
some sort of animal contact, either with or without orgasm, in their pre-
adolescent, adolescent, and/or later histories. These must be minimum
data, for there has undoubtedly been some cover-up in the reports of these
activities. The data given in the remainder of this chapter are confined to
those contacts which have resulted in orgasm for the human subject; but
all of these figures may be doubled if one wishes to determine the total
number of persons involved in any sort of relation, whether with or with-
out orgasm. Such data begin to show what the significance of animal
intercourse might be if conditions were more favorable for such activity.
In fact, in certain Western areas of the United States, where animals
are most readily available and social restraints on this matter are less
stringent, we have secured incidence figures of as high as 65 per cent in
some communities, and there are indications of still higher incidences in
some other areas. The cases, however, are still too few to warrant a
specific statement on these regional differences.
Ultimately, 14 to 16 per cent of the rural males of the grade school
level, 20 per cent of the rural males of the high school level, and 26 to 28
per cent of the rural males of the college level have some animal expe-
rience to the point of orgasm (Tables 91, 151). In this upper educational
level, nearly one rural male in three has such contacts to the point of
orgasm, and well over half of these upper level males have some kind of
sexual contact with animals.
Frequencies of animal contacts vary from once or twice in a lifetime to
regular rates of several times a week over a considerable period of years.
Maximum regular frequencies for a few individuals may go as high as 8
per week between adolescence and 15, and 4 per week between 16 and 20,
but not above once per week between ages 21 and 25 (Table 49). For most
males, however, the frequencies come nearer averaging once in 2 or 3
weeks, in that portion of the population which is having any contacts
at all (Table 124). In most histories the contacts with animals are Umited
to a matter of 2 or 3 years, but in some cases they’ may extend over a 10-
or 15-year period or even throughout the whole of a life span.
Animal contacts are most frequent during the late pre-adolescent years
(Chapter 5) while ejaculation is stiU impossible for the human subject and
672
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Animal Contacts: Accumulative Incidence Data
AGE
TOTAL POPULATION
U. S. CORRECTIONS
EDUC. LEVEL
0-8
EDUC. LEVEL
9-12
EDUC. LEVEL
13+
Cases
% with
Cases
%with
Cases
% with
Cases
%with
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
Exper.
10
749
0.04
203
110
436
0 7
11
749
0.4
203
0.5
110
436
1.1
12
749
3.7
203
4.4
110
2.7
436
4.8
13
749
5.7
203
5.9
110
4.5
436
10.8
14
749
8.1
203
8.4
110
6.4
436
17.2
15
749
10.4
203
9.9
110
9.1
436
22.7
16
745
12.2
201
10.0
109
12.8
435
25.5
17
728
12.8
190
10.0
105
14.3
433
26.1
18
700
15.4
179
13.4
93
16.1
428
26.6
19
646
15.9
166
13.9
79
16.5
401
26.4
20
567
16.5
145
14.5
63
17.5
359 ‘
26.2
21
500
14.0
128
14.1
51
11.8
321
28.0
22
366
15.0
101
12.9
265
29.4
23
290
16.7
76
15.8
214
29.0
24
253
17.2
67
14.9
186
28.0
25
217
60
13.3
157
27.4
26
176
50
12.0
126
25.4
27
96
96
24.0
28
72
72
23.6
29
59
59
23.7
Table 151. Accumulative incidence data on animal contacts among rural males
Data confined to single males who lived on farms for some period between 12 and
18 years of age, or for longer periods. Data shown for three educational levels, and for
the total farm population corrected for the U. S. Census of 1940.
ANIMAL CONTACTS
673
when, in actuality, the boy almost never reaches orgasm in his animal
contacts. One-third of the males who will ever have such contacts have had
them by the age of 9. Between 10 and 12 there is a rapid increase in the
number of boys involved and the peak of such activity is reached just
before the onset of adolescence. In a third of the cases, boys with pre-
adolescent experience continue their activities with animals into adolescent
years. In terms of actual orgasms achieved by the human participant, the
highest frequencies occur in the earliest adolescent years ; but in some rural
areas, especially in the West, there is a considerable amount of regular
activity in the later teens and even through the early twenties. Cases become
relatively rare among single males in later years. There are, nevertheless,
occasional individuals who have regular contacts from adolescence into
ACE
Figure 172. Animal contacts: accumulative incidence in three educational
levels of single rural population
Showing percent of each level of single rural males who have ever had sexual contacts
with animals to the point of orgasm, by each of the indicated ages.
their fifties, and there is one case of a male past 80 years of age who had
had such contacts regularly throughout the whole of his life.
In most parts of the country animal intercourse is extremely rare among
married males; but, again, such experiences are not unknown among
married adults in some rural areas of the West.
Younger adolescent boys who are having animal contacts, derive, on an
average, 7 per cent of their total outlet from that source. The males who
are still having such contacts in their early twenties may derive as much as
15 per cent of their outlet from that source (Table 59).
As already indicated, a fair number of city boys have sexual relations
with animals (Table 124). Some of this is had with household pets, par-
ticularly with dogs, and some of it is had with ponies or with animals in
674
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
the city stockyards. More of it, however, is had with animals with which
the city boy comes into contact when he visits a farm during a vacation
period. Since their opportunities for contacts are infrequent, city-bred
males may not have more than a few experiences, and the frequencies of
contacts among farm boys may average thirty to seventy times as high as
the frequencies among city-bred groups.
Figure 173. Aiiijtnal contacts: individual variation in frequencies, in two age
periods, at three educational levels
NATURE OF CONTACTS
The animals that are involved in these human contacts include practi-
cally all of the species that are domesticated on the farm or kept as pets in
the household. Because of their convenient size, animals hke calves or,
in the West, burros and sheep are most often involved. Practically every
other mammal that has ever been kept on a farm enters into the record,
and a few of the larger birds, hke chickens, ducks, and geese. Vaginal coitus
ANIMAL CONTACTS
675
is the most frequent technique in the relations, but in at least parts of the
country the fellation of the boy by the calf is not uncommon, and occasion-
ally the household pels, particularly the dog and even the cat, may be
induced to so perform. There is some anal intercourse. In some cases the
boy masturbates by frictation against the body of the animal. There is an
occasional record of the human male fellating the male animal.
Masturbation of the animal by the human subject is almost as frequent
as vaginal coitus. Masturbation may be either on the male or female
animal, but it is most common with the male animal, particularly with
the male dog. Very often whole groups of boys may be involved in such
activities. If a boy is alone, he may masturbate himself while he masturbates
the animal, and there may be considerable erotic stimulation to the boy
involved in such a performance.
SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE
A considerable portion of the animal activity of the farm boy is the
product of his erotic arousal upon contemplating the coitus that occurs
among the animals themselves, and of his constant association with
animals that he knows have been recently involved in sexual activity. Such
sympathetic emotional responses are natural enough and not fundament-
ally different from those which would be expected if the boy were to observe
coitus among human subjects. His attempt to replace the male animal in
such relations is the obvious outcome of an identification of his own capac-
ities with those of the animal he has observed. His initial attempts are
sometimes inspired by a quite understandable curiosity to try what he has
discovered to be a possible sort of activity. Whatever moral issues may be
involved, and however long-standing the social condemnation of animal
contacts may have been throughout the history of Western European
civilizations, the easy dismissal of such behavior by characterizing it as
abnormal shows little capacity for making objective analyses of the basic
psychology that is involved.
In a considerable number of instances the farm boy’s initiation into
animal contacts is inspired by his knowledge of similar activity among
his companions. This is particularly true in Western areas where adults
as well as adolescents are not infrequently engaged in animal intercourse,
and where there may be frequent conversation in the community about
such activities. It is not unusual in some rural areas to find individuals
who openly adnudt that such contacts have provided them with some erotic
satisfaction.
To a considerable extent contacts with animals are substitutes for
heterosexual relations with human females. In rural areas where both
social and sexual relations with girls may be more or less limited, the boy
is often left alone or with his brothers, his male cousins, or the adult
676
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
males who are working on the farm. We share the general impression,
although we have no significant data to establish it, that rural communities
are on the whole more traditional in their moral condemnation of pre-
marital sexual relations, and the boy on the farm is often strictly forbidden
to associate with girls. This cannot help but encourage substitutional
behavior of the sort which the animals may afford. There are histories of
extremely religious males who, even in their twenties and in later years,
continue to derive practically the whole of their outlet from animals
because of their conviction that heterosexual coitus with a human female
is morally unacceptable.
In not a few cases the animal contacts become homosexual activities.
Masturbating the male animal, whether it is a dog, horse, bull, or some
other species, may provide considerable erotic excitement for the boy or
older adult. He senses the genital similarities between the male animal
and himself, and he recognizes the relationship between the animal’s
performance and reactions and his own capacities. His enjoyment of the
relationship is enhanced by the fact that the male animal responds to the
point of orgasm, and in at least some cases he is disappointed that the
female animal (with rare exceptions) shows no erotic arousal and fails to
experience orgasm. For these reasons, many a farm boy has as much con-
tact with male animals as he does with female animals. There is consider-
able basis for calling such activity homosexual, but since it is not recog-
nized as such by most of the boys who are involved, they are in no conflict
over that fact.
Psychically, animal relations may become of considerable significance
to the boy who is having regular experience. While his initial contacts may
involve little more than the satisfaction which is to be obtained from
physical stimulation, the situation becomes quite different for the boy who
is having frequent contacts with particular animals. The depth of the
boy’s psychic response is evidenced by his quick erection and by the ease
with which he may reach orgasm in his relations with the animal. The
psychic significance of his experience is particularly evidenced by the fact
that animal contacts may become a regular part of his nocturnal dreams.
Moreover, many a farm boy, while masturbating, develops erotic fantasies
of himself in contact with some animal. In some cases the boy may develop
an affectional relation with the particular animal with which he has his
contacts, and there are males who are quite upset emotionally, when
situations force them to sever connections with the particular animal. If
this seems a strange perversion of human affection, it should be recalled
that exactly the same sort of affectional relationship is developed in many
a household where there are pets; and it is not uncommon for persons,
everywhere in our society, to become considerably upset at the loss of a
pet dog or cat which has been in the home for some period of time. The
ANIMAL CONTACTS
677
elements that are involved in sexual contacts between the human and
animals of other species are at no point basically different from those that
are involved in erotic responses to human situations.
On the other side of the record, it is to be noted that male dogs who
have been masturbated may become considerably attached to the persons
who provide the stimulation; and there are records of male dogs who
completely forsake the females of their own species in preference for the
sexual contacts that may be had with a human partner.
With most males, animal contacts represent a passing chapter in the
sexual history. They are replaced by coitus with human females as soon
as that is available. On the other hand, the male who has had any con-
siderable amount of animal experience may become so conditioned that
he still finds himself erotically aroused by contemplating such possibihties,
even years after he has stopped having actual contacts.
Anglo-American legal codes rate sexual relations between the human
and animals of other species as sodomy, punishable under the same laws
which penalize homosexual and mouth-genital contacts. The city-bred
judge who hears such a case is likely to be unusually severe in his condem-
nation, and is likely to give the maximum sentence that is possible. Males
who are sent to penal institutions on such charges are likely to receive
unusually severe treatment both from the administrations and from the
inmates of the institutions. All in all, there is probably no type of human
sexual behavior which has been more severely condemned by that segment
of the population which happens not to have had such experience, and
which accepts the age-old judgment that animal intercourse must evidence
a mental abnormality, as well as an immorality.
On the other hand, in rural communities where animal contacts are not
infrequent, and where there is some general knowledge that they do
commonly occur, there seem to be few personal conflicts growing out of
such activity, and very few social difficulties. It is only when the farm-bred
male migrates to a city community and comes in contact with city-bred
reactions to these activities, that he becomes upset over the contemplation
of what he has done. This is particularly true if he learns through some
psychology course or through books that such behavior is considered
abnormal. There are histories of farm-bred males who have risen to
positions of importance in the business, academic, or political world in
some large urban center, and who have lived for years in constant fear
that their early histories will be discovered. The chnician who can reassure
these individuals that such activities are biologically and psychologically
part of the normal mammahan picture, and that such contacts occur in as
high a percentage of the farm population as we have already indicated,
may contribute materially toward the resolution of these conflicts.
678
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
Viewed objectively, human sexual behavior, in spite of its diversity, is
more easily comprehended than most people, even scientists, have pre-
viously realized. The six types of sexual activity, masturbation, spontaneous
nocturnal emissions, petting, heterosexual intercourse, homosexual con-
tacts, and animal contacts, may seem to fall into categories that are as
far apart as right and wrong, licit and illicit, normal and abnormal,
acceptable and unacceptable in our social organization. In actuality, they
all prove to originate in the relatively simple mechanisms which provide
for erotic response when there are sufficient physical or psychic stimuli.
To each individual, the significance of any particular type of sexual
activity depends very largely upon his previous experience. Ultimately,
certain activities may seem to him to be the only things that have value,
that are right, that are socially acceptable; and all departures from his
own particular pattern may seem to him to be enormous abnormalities.
But the scientific data which are accumulating make it appear that;, if
circumstances had been propitious, most individuals might have become
conditioned in any direction, even into activities which they now consider
quite unacceptable. There is little evidence of the existence of such a thing
as innate perversity, even among those individuals whose sexual activities
society has been least inclined to accept. There is an abundance of evidence
that most human sexual activities would become comprehensible to most
individuals, if they could know the background of each other individuaTs
behavior.
The social values of human activities must be measured by many scales
other than those which are available to the scientist. Individual responsi-
bilities toward others in the social organization, and the long-range out-
come of behavior which represents the individual’s response to the stimuli
of the immediate moment, are things that persons other than scientists
must evaluate. As scientists, we have explored, and we have performed
our function when we have published the record of what we have found
the human male doing sexually, as far as we have been able to ascertain
that fact.
CLINICAL TABLES
TABLE 152 . SINGLE WHITE MALES
TABLE 153 . MARRIED WHITE MALES
TABLE 154 . PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
Chapter 23
CLINICAL TABLES
This chapter is primarily designed for use by the clinician and some
others concerned with directing human behavior. It will be of particu-
lar use to psychiatrists, physicians, chnical psychologists, personnel offi-
cers, counselors in schools, marriage counselors, court judges, probation
and parole officers, institutional directors, social workers, clergymen,
teachers, and parents. By means of the tables included in this chapter, it
should be possible to compare the sexual history of the individual who
comes for help, with averages for other persons of the same age group,
educational level, and religious or rural-urban background. Many persons
should be interested in comparing their histories with the group patterns.
It is often important to know how far an individual’s sexual behavior de-
parts from the pattern of the group in which he has been raised or in which
he may now live. Personality conflicts more often depend upon the indi-
vidual’s departure from the pattern of the social group to which he belongs,
less often upon his failure to conform to the publicly pretended social code
or to the formulated laws. Many clinicians feel that any re-direction of be-
havior should be limited to fitting the individual into the pattern of the
particular group to which he belongs, rather than trying to place him in a
pattern which the upper social level considers socially or morally desir-
able. An increasing number of clinicians have come to realize that
attempts to re-direct behavior into patterns which are foreign to the
background of the individual may introduce even more conflicts.
Many persons who are disturbed over items in their sexual histories may
be put at ease when they learn what the patterns of the rest of the popula-
tion are, and when they realize that their own behavior has not departed
fundamentally from the behavior of most persons in their social group.
It may well be questioned how far an individual is responsible for his be-
havior when he conforms to the pattern of his social level, even though he
may thereby be involved in a transgression of the law. Court officers and
other law enforcement officials, administrators of penal, mental, and other
institutions, and social workers might well distinguish between departures
from the law and departures from the pattern which is common in a whole
social group. The chnician who is interested in modifying the pattern of a
particular individual should realize that this must ultimately involve a
transformation of the pattern of the whole group from which the individual
comes.
681
682
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
DEFINITIONS
Terms in these tables have been used with the same meanings that have
been applied to them throughout the present volume. Specifically, the fol-
lowing definitions have been used:
1. White males. These tables are based entirely upon white males. The
data for Negro males are not included.
2. Marital status. There are three sets of tables (Tables 152, 153, 154)
covering single males, married males, and previously married males. Per-
sons who have lived openly as man and wife for a full year in a common law
relationship are treated as married persons.
3. Age. Summaries are given for each age group, beginning with a period
which extends from adolescence through 15, and continuing with groups
that extend beyond that by 5-year periods.
4. Educational level. This represents the amount of schooling which the
subject ultimately attains before leaving school. There are three classifi-
cations : 0-8 are the males who never have more than grade school edu-
cation; 9-12 are the males who go into high school but not beyond; 13+
are the males who at least start to college. For those individuals who are
still in grade school or high school, the ratings must not be taken to repre-
sent the grades in which they are currently located. For a male who is still
in grade school or in high school, the clinician may sometimes predict, on
the basis of his home background, the amount of his future schooling. All
males who are still in college may be considered of college level and located
in the tables along with the males who have completed college.
5. Urban. Persons who have lived in cities or towns for the major portion
of the period between 12 and 18 years of age.
6. Rural. Persons who have lived on operating farms for an appreciable
portion of the time between ages 12 and 18.
7. Protest., active. Persons regularly attendant or actively involved in
organizational work in a Protestant church, during the age period pre-
sented on the tables.
8. Protest., inactive. Persons with Protestant church background, but
not regular attendants or active participants in church activities, during the
period shown.
9. Cath., devout. Persons who are members and frequent attendants in
the Catholic church, and/or who regularly attend confession.
10. Cath., inactive. Persons with Catholic backgrounds but not regular
attendants and not regularly going to confession during the age period
shown in the tables.
11. Jevrish, Orthod. Persons who are regular attendants at the synagogue
and/or more or less strict in their observance of the Orthodox customs.
12. JevFish, inactive. Persons with Jewish backgrounds but not regular
attendants at the synagogue or strict in their observance of the Orthodox
customs.
CLINICAL TABLES
683
13. Source of outlet.
Total. The total number of orgasms (given as averages per week)
which result from any and all types of sexual activity, added together
Mast. Masturbation. Orgasms experienced from deliberate self-
stimulation by any technique, whether manual, frictional, or other.
Emiss. Nocturnal emissions. Orgasms experienced during sleep,
whether with or without accompanying dreams.
Pet. Petting to climax. Orgasms experienced as a result of heterosexual
contacts which do not include the actual union of genitalia.
Interc. Intercourse. Orgasms resulting from heterosexual coitus. For
single males this represents the total of all pre-marital intercourse, ir-
respective of whether it is had with companions or with prostitutes, or
with both. For married males this represents only that portion of the
heterosexual intercourse which is had with the wife. In post-marital
histories this is again the total of all heterosexual intercourse, whether
with companions or with prostitutes or with both.
Extra. Extra-marital intercourse. The total number of orgasms se-
cured by the married male from coitus with females other than his
wife, whether the partners are companions or prostitutes.
Prost. Intercourse with prostitutes. The record of orgasms derived
from heterosexual intercourse with prostitutes, in the single, extra-
marital, or post-marital histories.
Homo. Homosexual outlet. Orgasms resulting from physical contacts
with other males, irrespective of the techniques employed, and irre-
spective of whether the relation is had with companions or with male
prostitutes.
Anim. Animal contacts. Orgasms resulting from sexual contacts with
animals other than human, and irrespective of techniques employed.
14. Cases. Showing the size of the population on which the data in the
tables are based. It is to be recalled (Chapter 3) that a sample of 50 has
proven adequate for establishing incidence data, that samples of 100 or 200
are fairly adequate for means and medians, and that samples of 300 or
more are quite adequate for determining means and medians. The larger
the sample, the more adequate the data on the range of variation. The
clinician may make some allowance for error in data which are shown here
when they are based on samples which are smaller than those prescribed
above; but such smaller samples may still be taken as indicative of results
that may be obtained from larger samples.
15. Incid. %. Showing the percentage of that particular group (the
incidence) which has any experience with that particular outlet. This pro-
vides a figure for calculating the size of the active population.
16. Freq. per week. Data showing the average frequencies per week from
each particular source of outlet, for each segment of the population. These
data are all based on “active populationsV’ as the term has been used
684
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
throughout the present volume. They are averages for those persons who
derive any of their outlet from that particular source, and they are not
averaged with data from those who do not draw an outlet from that source.
17. Range. The ranges given under Freq. per week represent the maxi-
mum frequencies which have been recorded for the individuals available
in the present study, except that the one most extreme individual in each
population has not been included. An individual whose rates of outlet av-
erage higher than the rates shown in this column, represents a more ex-
treme case than the present investigators have found in a population of the
size used here. How far these most extreme individuals depart from the
average for the particular population may be seen by comparing the size
of the range with the size of the means and the medians.
18. Mean. The means shown under Freq. per week represent the average
number of orgasms from each particular source in the particular popula-
tion. They represent one sort of average which should be taken into account
in judging the particular individual, but they should be compared with the
averages shown as medians in the next column.
19. Median. The medians shown under Freq. per week represent the av-
erage number of orgasms derived by the average individual (the individual
who stands mid-way) in the particular population. In many instances this
is the most important sort of average for comparisons. The figures for the
median become meaningless, however, when they become too small, in
which case the data for the means will have to be relied upon.
20. % of total outlet. These data show the proportion of the total sexual
outlet which is derived from each source, in each active population. These
do not total 100% for the whole population, because each calculation is
based only on those individuals whose histories include the particular out-
let (see Chapter 3).
21. Range. The range under % of total outlet shows the maximum per-
centage which any individual in the available sample has derived from a
particular source, except that the one most extreme individual is not in-
cluded in the calculations.
22. Mean. The means under % of total outlet show the proportion of the
total number of orgasms which, on an average, is derived from the par-
ticular source. This is one kind of average, but it should be compared with
the averages shown as medians in the next column.
23. Median. The medians under % of total outlet show the percentages of
the total number of orgasms which are derived from each particular source
by the average individual in the active population (the individual who
stands mid-way in the whole population).
HOW TO USE THE TABLES
1. After the sexual history of an individual is secured by the clinician,
the extent to which the history agrees or disagrees with averages for the
particular social group to which he belongs, and the question of whether
CLINICAL TABLES
685
he falls within or outside of the range of variation now known within that
group, may be determined by the use of these clinical tables. Data which
the clinician needs for such comparisons should include average frequen-
cies of orgasms experienced by the individual (averaged per week) from
each of the possible sources (masturbation, nocturnal emissions, hetero-
sexual petting, total heterosexual intercourse, heterosexual intercourse
with prostitutes, marital intercourse, homosexual outlets, and animal con-
tacts), during each of the 5-year periods of the history. The total sexual
outlet for the individual in each of the 5-year periods may then be deter-
mined by an addition of the above outlets. It is then possible to compute
the percentages of the total outlet which the individual has derived from
each of these sources, during each of these 5-year periods.
2. The group to which a particular individual belongs may be deter-
mined as follows :
A. Locate the individual in Table 152, 153, or 154, depending on
whether he is single, married, or previously married.
B. LFnder one of these Tables, pick the age group to which the indi-
vidual now belongs.
C. Under each of the ages, locate the section which covers groups
whose maximum amount of schooling corresponds with that of
the subject.
D. Under the particular educational levels, locate the individual as
urban or rural, and belonging to one or another of the religious
groups shown. If the proper rural-urban or religious group is not
shown, the history of the particular individual will have to be com-
pared with the data for that educational level taken as a whole.
E. For further information, examine the data given under each of the
age groups which the individual has previously passed through.
3. It is then possible to consider the extent to which the individuafs pat-
tern agrees with or departs from the pattern shown for his group in the
tables. Remember that in any group there is always considerable individual
variation, and that no individual may be expected to conform to averages
for the group (see Figures 136 to 160). The extent to which the chnician
allows a departure from any average will depend upon his interpretation
of the significance of a strict conformance to the group pattern, and his ac-
ceptance of some latitude of individual variation. In any event, the judg-
ment of the individual’s behavior will have been based upon an under-
standing of the patterns of sexual behavior which lie in the background
from which the individual comes.
4. A generalized statement concerning the nature of the sexual pattern
in each of these social groups is given on the right-hand page and directly
opposite the corresponding data in the tables. If statistical calculations on
the individual’s sexual history are not available, or do not seem sufficiently
important to secure, his history can at least be compared with the general-
ized statements given on the right-hand pages throughout this chapter.
Table 152. Clinical Tables
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
1 FREQ. PER WEEK
1 % OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID.
AGE: ADOL.-15
OF
CASES
%
OUTLET
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
1. Whole group
Total
712
91
25.0
3.3
2.1
Mast
712
85
14.0
1.8
1.1
100
66.9
75.8
Emiss.
712
25
2.5
0,2
0.1
100
17.1
2.7
Pet.
712
13
3.0
0.2
0.1
30
2.5
0.6
Interc.
630
48
22.0
2.2
1.2
100
50.8
48.5
Prost.
712
9
2.0
0.3
0.1
85
12.3
2.5
Homo.
712
24
7.0
1.0
0.4
100
19.4
9.3
Amm.
712
6
2.0
0.5
0.1
25
5.2
0.9
2. Urban
Total
401
92
25.0
3.7
2.3
Mast.
401
87
14.0
2.0
1.2
100
65.6
74.2
Emiss.
401
27
2.5
0.2
0.1
100
14.1
1.9
Pet.
401
14
2.5
0.3
0.1
15
2.4
0.6
Interc.
414
51
22.0
2.5
1.4
100
50.2
48.8
Prost.
401
10
2.0
0.4
0.2
70
11.4
3.3
Homo.
401
28
7.0
1.1
0.4
75
17.6
8.1
Amm.
401
4
1.5
0.3
0.1
25
4.1
0.8
3. Rural
Total
245
89
17.0
2.7
1.7
Mast
245
81
14.0
1.6
1.1
100
70.2
84.3
Emiss.
245
23
2.0
0.2
0.1
100
24.4
4.8
Pet.
245
12
1.0
0.1
0.1
30
3.1
0.7
Interc.
199
39
14.0
1.7
0.9
100
52.0
48.1
Prost.
245
5
1.0
0.2
0.1
85
20.2
3.0
Homo.
245
18
3.5
1.0
0.5
100
24.9
12,5
Anim.
245
9
2.0
0.6
0.5
20
7.2
5.8
4. Protest., active
Total
89
83
14.0
3.2
1.9
Mast.
89
71
10.0
1.8
1.1
100
69.4
87.5
Emiss.
89
21
0.5
0.1
0.1
100
29.5
4.0
Pet.
89
11
1.0
0.2
0.1
10
4.4
0.7
Interc.
83
34
7.0
2.0
0.8
100
51.8
47.5
Prost.
89
4
0.5
1.1
0.4
30
28.6
17.5
Homo.
89
1 22
3.5
1.7
1.7
100
1 37.1
27.5
Anim.
78
4
1.0
1.1
1.0
15
13.0
15.0
5. Protest, inactive
Total
481
94
25.0
3.3
2.0
Mast
481
88
14.0
1.8
1.1
100
66.3
73.1
Emiss.
481
26
2.5
0.2
0.1
100
13.6
2.2
Pet.
422
14
3.0
0.2
0.1
15
2.5
0.6
Interc.
431
52
22.0
2.2
1.3
100
51.3
49.2
Prost.
422
10
2.0
0.3
0.1
85
12.2
2.0
Homo.
481
23
6.0
1.0
0.4
75
17.3
5.4
Amm.
422
5
1.0
0.2
0.1
20
4.0
0.9
6. Cath., inactive
Total
106
91
14.0
3.6
2.5
Mast.
106
86
9.0
1.9
1.2
100
64.1
75.0
Emiss.
106
24
0.5
0.2
0.1
100
17.3
3.0
Pet.
106
16
1.0
0.2
0.1
10
1.7
0.6
Interc.
89
45
9.0
2.7
2.1
100
52.6
56.3
Prost.
106
7
0.5
0.3
0.3
15
7.1
6.3
Homo.
106
30
3.5
1.0
0.4
55
17.3
6.3
Educ. level 9-12
Amm.
77
8
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
4.3
0.7
7. Whole group
Total
606
95
25.0
3.5
2.5
Mast
606
90
15.0
2.2
1.4
100
70.5
78.5
Emiss,
606
40
5.0
0.4
0.1
100
16.7
3.7
Pet.
606
20
2.5
0.2
0.1
40
4.5
0.7
Interc.
511
43
25.0
1.9
0.8
100
39.9
33.9
Prost.
606
8
1.0
0.2
0.1
60
7.0
0.9
Homo.
606
32
7.0
0.9
0.3
100
18.1
4.9
Anim.
606
6
2.5
0.5
45
7.8
2.8
m
CLINICAL TABLES : SINGLE
687
Table 152 . Clinical Tables
SINGLE WHITE MALES
1. Adol.-15, Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Most boys (91%) immediately ac-
tive upon onset of adolescence, mean weekly rates 3.3 but often 7 or more.
Regular rnasturbation for 85%, but of total outlet from intercourse for 3^^ of
group. This level accepts intercourse as the great desideratum, often begins it in
pre-adolescence. Nocturnal emissions in only 34 of boys. Homosexual in 34,
accounting for 1/10 of their outlet. Other outlets less frequent.
2. Adol.-15. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Essentially as described above (Group 1).
City-bred boys are somewhat more often involved than rural boys in every type
of sexual activity except animal contacts. Masturbation % of outlet for 87% of
boys; intercourse important, providing 3^^ of outlet for of boys. Homosexual
in 28%, accounting for 8% of their outlet. All other sources more minor.
3. Adol.-15. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Essentially as described under Group 1.
In most .sexual activities, farm boys are less often involved than city boys (Group
2). Masturbation in 81%, intercourse in 39%, homosexual in 18%. Masturbation
accounts for 84% of total outlet of those who masturbate at all, intercourse for
48%, homosexual for 13%. Animal contacts to orgasm in 9%, attempts in as
many more.
4. AdoL-15. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., active. Somewhat more restrained boys
of lower level (Group 1). Fewer individuals involved in any type of activity; only
a few of these upset by conflict between religious backgrounds and lower level’s
acceptance of sex. Boys who do engage in any activity, may have as high fre-
quencies as the rest of the community. Masturbation, intercourse, and the homo-
sexual are the most common, in that order.
5. Adol.-15. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. A sexually active group of
lower level boys (Group 1). Acceptant of most types of sexual activity. Masturba-
tion in 88%, intercourse in 52%, prostitutes in 10%, the homosexual in 23%. Fre-
quencies highest in masturbation and intercourse. Quite aware that their com-
panions and older boys are similarly involved, and not impressed by persons who
interfere with such nearly universal activity.
6. Adol.-15. Educ. level 0-8. Cath., inactive. Of Cathohc background, but
sexual activities little affected by religious teaching. Closely duplicating the group
pattern (Group 1), and pattern of inactive Protestant boys (Group 5). Accept
masturbation (86% of boys), intercourse (45%), and homosexual relations
(30%). Few conflicts. Predominantly heterosexual in psychic response, overt ac-
tivity, and public pretense; but a full third have some homosexual relations.
7. Adol.-15. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Most active of all educational
levels, nearly every boy sexually active immediately at adolescence, with high
frequencies — 3.5 per week, often 10 or more. Nearly all (90%) masturbate;
nearly half (43%) have intercourse before 15, many before adolescence; a third
(32%) ejaculate in homosexual before 15. Nocturnal emissions (40%) higher than
among boys of grade school level; petting more often than in grade school or
even college levels.
23
Table 152. Clinical Tables ( continued )
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: ADOL.-15
Educ. level 9-12
8. Urban
O.A.SHS
% ■
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Total
459
96
23.0
3.7
2.6
—
—
—
Mast.
459
90
12.0
2.3
1.6
100
69.1
77.2
Emiss.
459
42
5.0
0 4
0.1
100
16.7
3.9
Pet.
459
20
2.5
0.3
0.1
40
5.0
0 7
Interc.
405
44
25.0
2.0
0.8
100
40.0
35.0
Frost
459
8
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.1
0.9
Homo.
459
38
5.0
0.8
0.3
100
18.8
7.9
Anim.
459
4
2.0
0.5
0.1
20
6.3
3.0
9. Rural
Total
124
94
18.0
3.0
1.9
—
—
—
Mast
124
89
9.0
1.9
1.2
100
77.9
92.5
Emiss.
124
35 1
2.0
0.3
0.2
100
17.6
3.0
Pet.
124
18
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
2.6
0.6
Interc,
91
38
4.5
1.5
0.9
100 1
37.4
32.0
Prost.
124
5
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
20.0
0.8
Homo.
124
20
7.0
1.3
0.1
45
12.6
2.3
Anim.
124
10
1.0
0.4
0.1
45
11.5
3.0
10. Protest., active
Total
93
92
12.0
2.8
1.9
—
—
—
Mast
93
87
9.0
2.0
1.6
100
72.0
81.3
Emiss.
93
41
2.5
0.4
0.2
100
25.8
11.3
Pet.
93
16
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
3.3
0.7
Interc.
86
31
4.5
1.4
0.8
80
40.5
40.0
Prost.
93
5
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
1.0
0.8
Homo.
93
15
2.5
0.7
0.1
75
21.9
3.0
Arum.
83
5
0.5
0.2
0.2
15
16.8
12.5
11. Protest., inactive
Total
375
95
23.0
3.6
2.5
—
—
Mast.
375
90
12.0
2.1
1.4
100
69.6
77.8
Emiss.
375
40
4.0
0.4
0.1
100
13.2
2.7
Pet.
311
21
1.5
0.2
0.1
30
3.7
0.7
Interc.
318
48
14.0
2.0
1.0
100
42.4
36.1
Prost.
311
8
0.5
0.2
0.1
15
2.6
0.8
Homo.
375
34
5.0
0.8
0.3
95
15.6
4.4
Anim.
311
8
2.0
0.5
0.2
55
7.4
2.7
12. Cath., inactive
Total
103
98
23.0
3.9
2.7
—
Mast
103
95
11.0
2.3
1.6
100
73.9
81.0
Emiss.
103
35
1.5
0.4
0.2
90
13.1
4.3
Pet.
103
21
2.5
0.5
0.1
40
7.1
0.7
Interc.
72
38
3.0
1.6
0.5
85
26.1
22.5
Prost.
103
9
Scant
0.1
0.1
5
6.5
1.0
Educ. level 13+
Homo.
103
47
5.0
1.1
0.4
75
23.2
12.5
13. Whole group
Total
2799
96
29.0
3.0
2.3
—
—
—
Mast
2799
82
29.0
2.7
2.1
100
82.2
92.7
Emiss.
2799
70
12.0
0.5
0.3
100
30.0
11.6
Pet.
2799
14
3.5
0.3
0.1
80
9.1
0.8
Interc.
2421
10
9.5
0.8
0.3
100
23.6
9.4
Prost
2799
2
0.5
0.1
0.1
35
4.2
0.7
Homo.
2799
21
6.0
0.4
0.1
90
9.4
1.1
Anim.
2799
5
8.0
0.4
0.1
75
6,6
0.8
14. Urban
Total
2587
96
29.0
3.0
2.3
Mast.
2587
82
29.0
2.7
2.1
100
81.8
92.6
Emiss.
2587
72
12.0
0.5
0.3
100
28.9
10.7
Pet.
2587
14
3.5
0.3
0.1
70
9.3
0.9
Interc.
2126
10
9.5
0.8
0.3
100
21.9
9.0
1
Prost.
2587
2
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
2.6
0.7
Homo.
2587
22
6.0
0.4
0.1
85
10.1
1.4
Anim.
2587
2
2.0
0.1
0.1
51
0.7
0.6
688
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
689
SINGLE WHITE MALES
8. AdoL-15. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Often very energetic and socially active.
Sexually more involved than farm boys (Group 9), especially those city boys who
become adolescent by 12. Mean total frequencies 3.7 per week (often to 10 or
more). Chief outlets masturbation (among 90%), intercourse (44%), nocturnal
emissions (42%), and homosexual (38%). Early becoming proficient at socio-
sexual contacts, relatively uninhibited except in a few of the religiously devout.
9. Adol.-15. Educ. level 9-12. Rural. Less active than city-bred boys (Group
8), more active than farm boys of grade school level (Group 3). Most (89%)
masturbate, a third (38%) have coitus, another third (35%) nocturnal emissions.
In contrast to city boys, only one in five (20%) has homosexual, but one in ten
(10%) completes animal intercourse, as many more may attempt it. For those
actively involved, 92% of outlet from masturbation, 32% from intercourse.
10. Adol.-15. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., active. Slightly less active, but actually
very close to other young adolescent boys of high school level (Group 7). Mas-
turbation in 87% of histories, intercourse in one-third, these the chief sources of
outlet. Nevertheless, petting and homosexual in one in seven histories. An occa-
sional individual may be in conflict with religious backgrounds, but more af-
fected by group pattern than by religion.
11. Adol.-15. Educ. level 9-12, Protest., inactive. Data almost exactly as de-
scribed for urban group of high school level (Group 8). Incidences highest in
masturbation (90%), intercourse (48%), nocturnal emissions (40%), and the
homosexual (34%). Chief outlets from masturbation (78% of total for mastur-
bating males) and intercourse (36% of total for males who have any coitus).
Group accepts sex with little conflict.
12. AdoL-15. Educ. level 9-12. Cath., inactive. Most active of younger ado-
lescent boys, 98% having some outlet by 15. This a reflection of community ac-
ceptance of sex, and of minimum attention to religious teaching. Incidences
highest in masturbation (95%), homosexual (47%), intercourse (38%). Chief
outlets masturbation (81%), intercourse (22%). Intercourse considered highly
desirable. Homosexual often condemned, but nearly one-half (47%) draw 12.5%
of their outlet from it.
13. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. Boys who ultimately go to col-
lege become active early, depend chiefly on masturbation and nocturnal emis-
sions. Masturbation often accepted, occasionally causes worry, not as often as
among older generations. Pre-adolescent play chiefly exhibitionistic, with little
carry-over. Much inhibited socio-sexually, from adolescence and on. Much less
affected than lower level boys by sexual activities of older companions, but soon
acquire community judgment that intercourse is wrong. More often pet to
climax. 21% have homosexual contacts (infrequently); this not often causing
conflicts at this age.
14. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13 -f. Urban. More or less precisely matches descrip-
tion given above (Group 13) for whole college level at this age; but animal inter-
course rare in this city-bred group.
Table 152. Clinical Tables (continued)
SE^GLE WHITE MALES
AGE
: ADOL.-15
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
cases
INCID.
%
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 13+
15.
Rural
Total
352
96
20.0
3.1
2.4
—
—
—
Mast.
352
84
14.0
2.7
2.2
100
84.8
94.4
Emiss.
352
62
4.0
0.4
0.3
100
28 0
11.1
Pet.
352
11
1.0
0.2
0.1
25
3 6
0.6
Interc.
265
11
4.5
0.8
0.3
100
35.7
20.0
Prost.
352
2
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
3.8
0.9
Homo.
352
21
2.5
0.4
0.1
40
6.4
2.4
Anim.
352
28
8.0
0.5
0.1
75
9.1
1.0
16.
Protest., active
Total
547
95
12.0
2.6
2.1
—
—
—
Mast
547
81
12.0
2.3
1.9
100
81.2
90.4
Emiss.
547
71
7.0
0.5
0.3
100
33.5
17.2
Pet.
484
14
3.0
0.4
0.1
60
11.3
0.9
Interc.
493
7
4.5
0.8
0.3
100
21.3
8.6
Prost
484
2
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.8
0.6
Homo.
547
24
4.0
0.4
0.1
80
8.8
1.7
Anim.
484
9
2.0
0.3
0.1
30
6,2
0.8
17.
Protest, inactive
Total
1471
96
25.0
3.2
2.6
—
—
Mast.
1471
85
20.0
2.8
2.3
100
81.6
92.1
Emiss.
1471
68
7.0
0.5
0.3
100
29.2
11.5
Pet.
1178
17
2.5
0.3
0.1
70
8.2
0.8
Interc.
1205
11
7.0
0.8
0.3
100
22.6
10.0
Prost.
1178
2
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
2.5
0.7
Homo.'
1471
26
5.0
0.4
0.1
85
7.8
1.0
Anim.
1178
7
2.5
0.4
0.1
35
5.2
0.8
18.
Cath., devout
Total
132
98
16.0
2.5
1.7
—
—
Mast.
132
79
16.0
2.5
1.6
100
83.4
91.7
Emiss.
132
75
3.0
0.4
0.3
100
40.1
19.5
Pet.
132
8
0.5
0.2
0.2
25
9.9
5.5
Interc.
103
5
1.5
0.9
1.0
45
37.0
40.0
Prost.
132
2
0.1
0.1
0.1
1
4.3
5.5
Homo.
132
17
2.5
0.5
0.1
40
14.2
5.0
Anim.
98
3
0.1
0.1
0.1
1
1.3
1.0
19.
Cath., inactive
Total
165
95
15.0
3.2
2,3
Mast.
165
81
14.0
2.9
2.0
100
77.9
89.4
Emiss.
165
65
3.5
0.5
0.3
100
33.9
12.0
Pet.
165
13
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
17.7
6.3
Interc.
117
16
3.0
1.5
0.5
95
33.9
25.0
Prost.
165
4
0.5
0.1
0.1
5
8.0
3.0
Homo.
165
20
2.5
0.6
0.2
50
16.6
10.8
20.
Jewish, Orthod.
Total
58
91
7.0
2.1
1.4
~_
Mast.
58
72
6.0
2.2
1.5
100
76.5
95.0
Emiss.
58
78
2.5
0.3
0.2
100
37.7
15.0
Pet.
58
21
1.5
0.3
0.1
50
14.0
0.9
Interc.
53
11
1.0
0.6
0.3
50
26.3
20.0
Prost.
58
5
0.1
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.5
0.7
Homo.
58
10
0.5
0.1
0.1
5
10.9
2.0
21.
Jewish, inactive
Total
601
96
29.0
3.0
2.3
—
__
Mast
601
80
29.0
2.9
2.2
100
81.2
93.9
Emiss.
601
75
6.5
0.5
0.3
100
36.5
19.6
Pet.
377
10
1.0
0.2
0.1
45
9.1
1.7
Interc.
412
7
3.0
0.5
0.1
75
13.2
5.0
Prost.
377
2
0.5
0.3
0.1
10
7.7
1.0
Homo.
601
15
* 4.5
0.4
0.1
55
9.9
2.8
Anim.
377
1
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.5
1.0
690
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
691
SESTGLE WHITE MALES
15. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13 +. Rural. Closely matches whole college level of
this age (Group 13). But animal intercourse with orgasm occurs among more
than a quarter (28%), attempts with animals may occur in nearly as many more,
so about half of these boys may be involved, with frequencies that average once
in ten weeks. Conflicts rarely develop out of this, unless some city-bred clinician
or other adult becomes disturbed in dealing with the boy.
16. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13+. Protest., active. Closely similar to whole group
of boys of college level (Group 13), with only a slightly more inhibited pattern.
Differing chiefly in being still less often involved in intercourse (7%) and still
more often in the homosexual (24%). Some individuals in the group, however,
in conflict over what sexual activity they do have.
17. Adol.~15. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Sexual pattern a close du-
plicate of that described for whole group of young boys of college level (Group
13). Only a bit more active in each type of sexual activity. Not so often in con-
flict over their sexual activity, but boys of college level rarely come to consider
pre-marital socio-sexual contacts as right.
18. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13 +. Cath., devout. A slightly more restrained ver-
sion of pattern typical of all college level at this age (Group 13). This identity
emphasizes that it is group pattern rather than immediate religious background
that is most significant (Chapter 10). Religious teaching, however, may intro-
duce conflicts which are not infrequently observed among boys in this group.
Emissions supply 20% of outlet for of boys.
19. Adol.-15, Educ. level 13+« Cath., inactive. Not particularly different from
pattern followed by all younger boys of college level (Group 13). Differing chiefly
from devout Catholics in having 3 times as many (16%) involved in intercourse.
Still as restrained as rest of college level, irrespective of lack of religious back-
ground (Chapter 10).
20. Adol.-15. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, Orthodox. Most restrained of all
younger adolescents of college level, mean outlet only 2.1. Slower in getting
started, depending more often on involuntary emissions; only 72% start mas-
turbation, against which there are strong taboos. Petting more often than any
other college level group, but intercourse in only 11% of cases. Compared with
rest of college level, one-half as many (10%) with homosexual. The pattern lays
groundwork for personality conflicts which are frequent in next age group of
these males.
21o Adol.-15. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, inactive. Closer to average for all col-
lege level boys (Group 13), in some respects less restrained than Orthodox Jew-
ish boys, but taboos on heterosexual petting (10%) and intercourse (7%) ap-
parently more severe. Sometimes involved in conflicts over sexual codes, even
though not actively connected with church.
Table 152. Clinical Tables (continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 16-20
OUTLET
CASES
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med
Educ. level 0-8
22. Whole group
Total
720
97
29 0
3.3
2.2
—
Mast.
720
84
8.0
1.1
0.6
100
42.0
34.0
Emiss.
720
56
2.5
0.3
0.1
100
12.4
3.7
Pet.
720
21
3.0
0.3
0.1
40
3.3
0 6
Interc.
635
85
22.0
2.0
1.0
100
57.3
59.7
Prost.
720
48
4.0
0 4
0,1
100
15.7
4.8
Homo.
720
26
7.0
0.8
0.3
75
16.7
5.2
Amm.
720
4
2.5
0.5
0.2
20
4.1
1.0
23. Urban
Total
397
98
26.0
3.5
2.4
—
—
Mast
397
85
8.0
1.2
0.6
100
39.2
31 0
Emiss.
397
58
2.5
0.3
0.1
100
10.4
3.1
Pet.
397
22
3 0
0.3
0.1
25
3.0
0.7
Interc.
406
87
22 0
2.3
1.3
100
60.2
64.0
Prost.
397
51
4 0
0.5
0.2
100
17.3
6.0
Homo.
397
32
5.5
0.8
0.3
75
15.6
5.2
Anim.
397
2
1.5
0.6
0.1
20
4.9
1.0
24. Rural
Total
259
96
16.0
2.9
2.0
Mast.
259
85
7.0
1.1
0.7
100
50.7
48.8
Emiss.
259
53
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
14.1
4.0
Pet.
259
18
1 5
0.2
0 1
30
4.1
0.7
Interc.
208
81
14.0
1.6
0.7
100
51.1
48.9
Prost.
259
42
3.0
0.4
0.1
95
14.1
3.8
Homo.
259
21
7.0
1.0
0.4
70
18.1
7.5
Anim.
259
7
2.0
0.5
0.3
5
2.2
1.4
25. Protest., active
Total
91
93
15.0
2.9
1.7
Mast
' 91
81
5.0
1.0
0 5
100
51.1
43.3
Emiss.
91
53
2 0
0.3
0 1
100
14.2
1.6
Pet.
91
19
1.0
0.1
0.1
5
0.9
0.7
Interc.
81
70
14 0
1.8
0.6
100
53.0
52.5
Prost.
91
37
1.0
0.3
0.1
75
14.8
5.0
Homo.
91
23
3.0
1.4
0.8
70
29.6
27.5
26, Protest, inactive
Total
493
98
29.0
3.4
2.3
__
_
Mast.
493
86
8.0
1.1
0.6
100
40.9
33.7
Emiss.
493
57
2.5
0.3
0.1
100
10.3
2.6
Pet.
431
22
3.0
0.2
0.1
30
3.1
0.7
Interc.
442
90
22.0
2.1
1.1
100
58.1
61.1
Prost.
431
49
4 0
0.4
0.2
100
16.9
5.2
Homo.
493
24
7.0
0.8
0.3
75
14.4
4.1
Anim.
431
4
2.5
0.4
0.1
20
3.1
0.9
27. Cath., inactive
Total
105
98
12 0
3.5
2.6
Mast.
105
85
7.0
1.2
0.7
100
45.1
36 9
Emiss.
105
57
1.0
0.3
0.2
40
11.6
6.3
Pet.
105
23
1 0
0.2
0.1
10
1.9
0.7
Interc.
88
81
10 0
2.3
1.3
100
57.5
60.0
Prost.
105
59
3.0
0.5
0.2
100
14.1
5.6
Educ. level 9-12
28. Whole group
Homo.
105
35
4.0
1.0
0.4
60
17.1
4.6
Total
607
100
26 0
3.5
2.7
Mast.
607
89
15 0
1.5
0.8
100
45.4
39.2
Emiss.
607
71
3.0
0,3
0.1
100
13.6
3.9
Pet.
607
34
2.0
0.2
0.1
50
5.5
0.7
Interc.
515
76
25,0
1.9
0.9
100
51.7
55.8
Prost.
607
41
2.5
0.2
0.1
100
9.5
0.9
Homo.
607
41
11.0
0.9
0.3
100
19.0
5.3
Anim
607
5
3.5
0.8
0 2
65
15.5
5.8
692
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
693
SINGLE WHITE MALES
22. Age 16-20. Ediic. level 0-8. Whole group. Most boys sexually most active
at this age, mean frequencies 3.3 per week, often 10, or more. Masturbation still
in 84%, becoming strongly taboo at this level, constituting only 34% of outlet.
Intercourse expected, freely accepted (Chapter 10), in 85%, contributing 60% of
outlet; rnales often promiscuous, often with venereal disease, often in conflict
with society because of sexual activity. Petting in 21%, a very minor outlet.
Homosexual in a quarter (26%), but publicly condemned and infrequent.
Nocturnal emissions in half (56%), very minor outlet. Individuals who were ado-
lescent by 12 most active of all single males (Chapter 9); but mentally and physi-
cally poorer individuals often with low rates. Little psychic eroticism. Often
strong taboos against nudity, oral eroticism, and some petting techniques.
23. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Typical of whole grade school level
(Group 22). More active than corresponding rural males (Group 24), more often
involved in intercourse and homosexual, less often with animals. A third of out-
let from solitary sources, two-thirds from socio-sexual contacts.
24. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Typical of whole grade school level
(Group 22), not quite so active. Not so many (81%) with intercourse, only 21%
with homosexual. Masturbation and intercourse account for most of outlet,
equally important. Animal intercourse still in 7%, of minor significance at this
age.
25. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., active. Somewhat less active than
average of grade school level (Group 22), much more active than any college
group. Intercourse still accepted in 70%, accounting for 53% of outlet. Masturba-
tion in 81% but taboo, accounting for only 43% of outlet. Homosexual in nearly
a quarter (23%), accounting for 28% of their outlet. Other activities minor,
26. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Very close to average for
whole lower level (Group 22), in most outlets somewhat more active. Intercourse
now in 90% for whom it provides nearly two-thirds (61%) of outlet. Masturba-
tion still in 86%, but taboo and provides only a third of outlet. All else very
minor. Rarely any conflict over behavior.
27. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Cath., inactive. A rather active group of lower
level boys, averaging 3.5 per week, often 7 or more. Intercourse in 81%, account-
ing for 60% of outlet. Masturbation in 85%, accounting for only 37% of outlet.
All other activities minor. Homosexual in 35%, but accounting for less than 5%
of orgasms even for those males. Quite acceptant of this pattern, not often with
conflicts.
28. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. This age at high school and
grade school levels (Group 22) more active than any other single males (especially
if adolescent by 12). Masturbation in 89% but more or less taboo, accounting for
39% of outlet. Intercourse in three-quarters (76%), accounting for 56% of outlet.
Often highly promiscuous, not infrequently acquiring venereal disease. Noc-
turnal emissions, petting, prostitutes, homosexual in many histories, but minor
as sources of outlet. 41% experiment with homosexual, often severely condemn-
ing it but clearly aroused by it. Otherwise little conflict over their pattern. Espe-
cially acceptant of heterosexual activity, although this may bring difficulty with
police. More erotic psychically than grade school level; more or less accept
nudity and oral eroticism; involved in petting as often as college males.
Table 152 . Clinical Tables {continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
CASES
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE
: 16-20
OF
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 9-12
29.
Urban
Total
520
100
26.0
3.6
2.7
—
—
—
Mast.
520
90
8.0
1.5
0.9
100
45.4
39.7
Emiss
520
71
3.0
0.3
0 1
100
13.4
4.2
Pet.
458
34
2.0
0.3
0.1
50
6.0
0.8
Interc.
405
73
25.0
1.9
0.9
100
51.6
55.6
Prost.
458
41
2.0
0.2
0.1
85
9.5
1.0
Homo.
520
46
11.0
1 0
0.4
100
20.6
6.6
Anim.
458
3
3.0
0.7
0.1
25
7.0
1.0
30.
Rural
Total
124
99
17.0
3.2
2.5
—
—
—
Mast.
124
85
7.0
1.3
0.8
100
47.0
39.2
Emiss.
124
72
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
12.3
2.3
Pet.
124
31
1.0
0.1
0.1
30
3.6
0.7
Interc.
95
87
7.0
1.7
1.0
100
51.8
56.3
Prost.
124
41
2.5
0.3
0.1
25
5.2
0 8
Homo.
124
26
2.0
0 4
0.1
55
9.4
0.8
Anim.
124
10
2 5
0 9
0.4
65
27. '8
25.0
31.
Protest., active
Total
95
100
9.5
2 5
1.7
—
—
—
Mast.
95
88
6.0
1 3
0.7
100
51.8
50.0
Emiss.
95
72
2 0
0.3
0.1
100
19.4
6.4
Pet.
95
32
1.0
0.2
0 1
35
6 5
0.8
Interc.
89
67
6 0
1.3
0.7
100
49.8
55.8
Prost.
95
32
1.0
0.2
0 1
20
3.6
0.8
Homo.
95
31
3 0
0.7
0.1
so
14.8
0.9
32.
Protest., inactive
Total
315
99
21.0
3.6
2.7
—
Mast.
315
89
7.0
1.4
0.8
100
43.4
37.3
Emiss.
315
73
3.0
0.3
0.1
100
11.5
3.2
Pet.
315
33
2.0
0.2
0.1
60
6.3
0.7
Interc.
322
80
20.0
2 0
0.9
100
52.9
57.0
Prost.
315
44
2.0
0.2
0.1
100 i
8.9
0.9
Homo.
315
37
6.0
0.8
0.2
100 i
16.4
4.7
Anim.
315
6
3.5
0.9
0.4
65
16.2
6.7
33.
Cath., inactive
Total
101
100
19.0
4.4
3.2
Mast.
101
91
8.0
1.7
1.0
100
44.0
39.6
Emiss.
101
60
2.0
0.3
0.2
50
10.1
5.0
Pet.
101
36
2.0
0.4
0.1
30
6.5
0.8
Interc.
69
68
13.0
2.0
1.0
100
54.6
57.5
Prost.
101
45
1.5
0.2
0.1
75
9.2
0.9
1
Homo.
101
59
6.0
1.4
0.6
85
29.3
22.5
Educ. level 134-
34.
Whole group
Total
2861
100
24.0
2.7
2.1
—
—
—
Mast.
2861
89
23.0
2.0
1.5
100
68.3
76.0
Emiss.
2861
91
6.5
0.5
0.3
100
25.4
12.7
Pet.
2861
46
5.0
0.3
0.1
100
10.7
0.9
Interc.
2475
42
12.0
0.6
0.2
100
18.5
4.9
Prost.
2861
19
1.5
0.1
0.1
50
2.4
0.6
Homo.
2861
16
7.0
0.4
0.1
90
10.1
1.1
Anim.
2861
2
2.0
0.4
0.1
50
10.1
2.8
35.
Urban
Total
2762
100
24.0
2.8
2.2
Mast.
2762
89
23.0
2.1
1.6
100
66.2
71.8
Emiss.
2762
91
6.5
0.5
0.3
100
25.1
11.8
Pet.
2762
48
5.0
0.3
0.1
95
12.1
0.9
Interc.
2172
43
12.0
0.6
0.2
100
18.9
5.4
Prost.
2640
20
1.5
0.1
0.1
40
2.0
0.6
Homo.
2762
16
7.0
0.4
0.1
70
10.3
1.0
Anim.
2640
1
Scant
0.1
0.1
10
5.5
0.8
694
CLINICAL TABLES SINGLE
695
SINGLE WHITE MALES
29. Age 1^20. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Fits description given above for high
school level in late teens (Group 28). More often (46%) experiments with homo-
sexual; but intercourse the accepted source, accounting for 56% of outlet. Often
highly promiscuous, often (in 41%) with prostitutes.
30. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Rural. Not significantly different from whole
high school level (Group 28). Differs from corresponding urban groups in being
involved in intercourse in more cases (87%), less often in homosexual (26%).
Animal intercourse in 10%, this a rather material outlet (25%) for males in-
volved.
31. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12, Protest., active. Pattern typical of whole high
school level (Group 28). Showing little effect of church connections, unless an
occasional individual is disturbed by conflicts between religious teaching and
group pattern which he actually follows. Intercourse in somewhat fewer histories
(67%), homosexual in fewer (31%).
32. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Pattern typical of whole
high school level (Group 28). The group pattern predominates. Not materially
different from active Protestant group, except more (80%) involved in inter-
course; 44% with prostitutes; 37% with homosexual experience. Intercourse
chief source (57%) of outlet, masturbation next (37%).
33. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Cath., inactive. Most unrestrained and sexu-
ally most active of all high school level (Group 28), with almost double the outlet
of active Protestants. Mean rate totals 4.4, higher than in any other single males
except individuals who become adolescent at early ages. Incidences and rates
high in masturbation, petting, intercourse with prostitutes, and homosexual
(59%). Incidences and rates lower for nocturnal emissions and (strangely enough)
for intercourse (68%). Few sexual conflicts, though often social dfficulties from
sexual activity.
34. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. Highly restrained (Chapter 10),
largely avoiding socio-sexual contacts on moral grounds (often rationalized as
“sensible” or “decent”). Even those who pet to climax (46%), have intercourse
(42%), or homosexual (1 6%), derive less than 7% of total outlet from such sources,
over 90% from solitary sources (masturbation, nocturnal emissions). Few part-
ners in socio-sexual contacts. Much psychic eroticism that does not lead to inter-
course. Many individuals appear to accept such a regime, but many actually
tense in socio-sexual situations. Some much disturbed over few contacts they do
have. Masturbation, petting, oral eroticism, nudity more often accepted. Most
American-trained clinicians come from this group, and may therefore need to
make special effort to recognize inhibitions and conflicts inherent in such asocial
patterns.
35. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13 +. Urban. Typical of whole college level (Group
34).
Table 152 . Clinical Tables {continued)
SESTGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID .
FREQ
PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
OF
CASES
AGE
: 16-20
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 13+
36.
Rural
Total
363
100
13.0
2 5
2 0
—
—
—
Mast.
363
89
8.0
1.9
1.4
100
73.3
79 0
Emiss.
363
92
5.0
0.5
0.3
100
24.5
13.7
Pet.
363
35
2.0
0.2
0 1
75
5.1
0 7
Interc.
272
36
5.5
0 5
0.1
95
16 6
3.0
Frost.
363
13
0.5
0 1
0.1
10
1.7
0.6
Homo.
363
17
2 0
0 3
0 1
50
7.7
2.0
Anim.
363
16
2.0
0.5
0.1
50
11.7
4.2
37.
Protest., active
Total
557
100
11 0
i 2.3
1.8
—
_
_
Mast.
557
86
10.0
1 8
1.3
100
71.3
77.4
Emiss.
557
92
5.0
0.5
0.3
100
29.2
16.7
Pet.
492
40
3.5
0.4
0.1
100
12.7
1 0
Interc.
502
27
7.0
0.6
0 1
100
15.2
2.4
Prost.
492
11
0.5
0 1
0 1
20
2.5
0.6
Homo.
557
17
4.0
0 4
0 1
75
8.3
1.3
Anim
492
4
1.0
0.3
0..^
40
10.1
3.4
38.
Protest., inactive
Total
1513
100
21.0
2.9
2.4
—
—
—
Mast
1513
91
14.0
2.1
1.6
100
68.9
76.2
Emiss.
1513
92
6.0
0.5
0.3
100
24.3
12.3
Pet.
1210
47
4.0
0.3
0 1
90
9.3
0.9
Interc.
1235
45
9.0
0.6
0.2
100
18.1
6.1
Prost.
1210
20
0.5
0.1
0.1
25
1.4
0.6
Homo.
1513
18
5.0
0.4
0.1
90
8 9 1
0.9
Anim.
1210
3
2.0
0.6
0.1
50
9.7
2.3
39.
Cath., devout
Total
136
100
12 0
2.4
1.7
—
Mast.
136
84
12 0
1 8
1.0
100
66.4
75.6
Emiss.
136
94
4 5
0.5
0.3
100
34 2
24.2
Pet.
136
43
2.0
0.4
0.1
60
14 0
5.0
Interc.
107
39
2.0
0.5
0.1
100
19.7
1 5.4
Prost.
136
16
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.0
0.7
Homo.
136
15
1.0
0.3
1 0.1
15
5.5
2.2
40.
Cath., inactive
Total
168
100
13.0
2.8
2 2
—
Mast.
168
86
11.0
1.9
1.5
100
56.2
58.8
Emiss.
168
91
3.0
0.5
0.3
100
29 2
14.0
Pet.
168
'50
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
9.5
1.0
Interc.
120
59
5.5
0.9
0.3
100
29.1
13.8
Prost.
168
30
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
3.5
0.7
Homo.
168
20
3.0
0.7
0.3
70
19.7
10.0
41.
Jewish, Orthod.
Total
59
100
6.0
2.0
1.6
Mast.
59
: 78
6.0
1.5
0.9
100
64.3
72.5
Emiss.
59
90
2.0
0.4
0.3
100
37.0
23.8
Pet.
59
46
1.5
0.3
0.1
60
11.0
1.0
Interc.
54
39
2.5
0.6
0.3
85
28.0
15.0
Prost.
59
20
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.7
0.6
Homo.
59
12
0.5
0.2
0,1
15
9.8
0.8
42.
Jewish, inactive
Total
607
100
23.0
3.0
2.3
Mast.
607
88
23.0
2.4
1.7
100
70.4
78,2
Emiss.
607
86
6.0
0.5
0.3
100
29,6
15.7
Pet.
379
48
3.5
0.3
0.1
80
9.9
2.6
Interc.
416
46
5.5
0.5
0.1
95
14.6
2.8
Prost.
379
22
1.5
0.1
0.1
50
3.8
0.6
Homo.
607
11
3.5
0.6
0.1
70
12.7
2.0
696
CLINICAL TABLES *. SINGLE
697
SINGLE WHITE MALES
36. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13 +. Rural. Close to pattern for whole college level
(Group 34), a bit less active. Incidences, frequencies, and percents of total outlet
a bit lower in petting, total intercourse, intercourse with prostitutes. Animal in-
tercourse in 16%, attempts in still others; but provides only 4% of outlet.
37. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Protest., active. Pattern close to that for
whole college level (Group 34), but still lower incidences, frequencies, and per-
cents of total outlet. Intercourse in only 27%, lower than in any other group of
this age, as against 80% to 91% incidence figures in other educational levels at
this same age.
38. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Typical of whole college
level (Group 34). Because they are not active in church, many of this group con-
sider themselves emancipated sexually, and a few more (45%) do have inter-
course, but even they derive only 6% of outlet therefrom. Actually about as re-
strained as actively religious groups; and clinician should realize these males are
equally capable of being disturbed over the few socio-sexual contacts they do
have.
39. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Cath., devout. Close to pattern for whole col-
lege level (Group 34), showing remarkably little effect of devoutly religious back-
ground. Slightly lower incidences in most outlets, this raising importance but not
actual frequencies of nocturnal emissions. Group pattern (Chapter 10) more im-
portant than immediate religious influences (Chapter 13).
40. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Cath., inactive. Close to pattern for whole
college level (Group 34), not nearly as distinct as religiously inactive groups are
at lower educational levels. Hardly differs from devout Catholic group except in
lower percent of outlet from masturbation and emissions, higher incidence (59%)
of intercourse, and higher rates and percent of outlet from that source.
41. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, Orthodox. Most restrained and sex-
ually least active among all groups of college level (Group 34). Total outlet only
2.0 per week. Incidences lower in masturbation (78%), intercourse (39%), homo-
sexual (12%). Total outlet largely from masturbation (73%) and nocturnal emis-
sions (24%). Relation of sexual restraint and neuroses should be given especial
attention by clinician handling individual cases in this group.
42. Age 16-20. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, inactive. Very similar to pattern of
whole college level (Group 34). Much restraint still to be recognized here. Re-
markably close to Orthodox pattern (Group 41), even though present group not
actively connected with synagogue. A few more (46%) have intercourse, but per-
cent of total outlet from intercourse (3%) actually lower than in Orthodox group
(15%); much of intercourse commercially secured from prostitutes.
Table 152. Clinical Tables {continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 21-25
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 0-8
43.
Whole group
Total
361
97
26.0
3.3
2.0
—
—
—
Mast.
361
62
7.0
1.0
0.5
100
37.5
24.8
Emiss.
361
60
2 0
0.3
0.1
100
13.2
4.0
Pet.
361
16
2.0
0.3
0.1
25
2.8
0.6
Interc.
312
86
18.0
2 3
1.1
100
66.4
76.3
Prost.
361
61
7.0
0.6
0.3
100
28.2
16.3
Homo.
361
22
6.0
1.1
0.4
90
21.7
9 0
Anim.
361
1
1.0
0.4
0.3
Scant
9.3
10.5
44.
Urban
Total
188
98
26.0
3.4
2.0
—
Mast.
188
63
7.0
1.0
0.5
100
34.2
22.5
Emiss.
188
60
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
11.8
3.5
Pet.
188
16
2.0
0.3
0.1
15
2.4
0.6
Interc.
195
91
18.0
2.6
1.4
100
68.4
78.8
Prost,
188
66
5.5
0.7
0.4
100
29.6
18.1
Homo.
188
29
5.0
0.9
0.4
100
20.6
10.0
45.
Rural
Total
141
95
19.0
3.0
1.8
Mast.
141
64
5.5
1.1
0.6
100
48.0
45.0
Emiss.
141
57
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
16.4
4.8
Pet.
141
13
1.0
0.2
0.1
15
5.7
0.9
Interc.
106
80
14.0
1.8
0.8
100
62.8
68.0
Prost.
141
50
4.5
0.6
0.3
100
27.3
13.8
Homo.
141
17
3.5
1.5
0.4
70
32.8
25.0
Anim.
141
3
1.0
0.4
0.3
Scant
6.3
1.0
46.
Protest., inactive
Total
234
98
26.0
3.3
2.1
Mast.
234
62
6.0
1.0
0.5
100
38.2
25.0
Emiss.
234
59
2.0
0.3
0.1
95
11.4
3.0
Pet.
234
15
1.5
0.3
0.1
40
4.3
0.7
Interc.
200
92
18.0
2.4
1.2
100
67.4
77.7
Prost.
234
64
5.0
0.6
0.3
100
28.1
16.5
Homo.
234
19
4.0
1.1
0.5
70
20.7
11.3
47.
Cath., inactive
Total
60
98
12.0
3.3
2.3
_
Mast.
60
67
4.0
0.9
0.4
100
32.7
22.5
Emiss.
60
65
1.5
0.3
0.2
50
13.4
8.5
Pet.
60
23
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
3.5
0.8
Interc,
57
86 1
10.0
2.3
1.3
100 1
68.9
75.0
Prost.
60
63
5.5
0.9
0.4
100
39.9
30.0
Homo.
60
40
3.5
0.9
0.3
90
21.1
4.6
Educ. level 9-12
48.
Whole group
Total
263
99
25.0
3.0
2.3
Mast.
263.
76
7.0
1.1
0.6
100
40.9
35.4
Emiss.
263
71
2.0
0.3
0.2
100
16.5
7.1
Pet.
263
28
2.0
0.3
0.1
65
8.9
0.8
Interc.
217
74
25.0
1.7
0.8
100
53.9
58.3
Prost.
263
44
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
15.6
2.9
Homo.
263
38
11.0
1.3
0.7
100
33.7
29.2
Anim.
263
3
0.5
0.5
0.1
15
17.2
15.0
49.
Urban
Total
209
100
17,0
3.2
2.6
Mast.
209
79
7.0
1.2
0.7
100
41.5
37.5
Emiss.
209
70
2.0
0.4
0.2
80
15.4
7.5
Pet.
209
29
2.0
0.3
0.1
65
9.8
0.8
Interc.
172
72
25.0
1.6
0.7
100
51.7
52.5
Prost.
209
41
2.0
0.3
0.1
90
15.0
2.5
Homo.
209
43
14.0
1.6
0.9
100
36.9
35.0
Anim.
209
2
Scant
0.7
0.1
Scant
0.5
1.0
698
CLINICAL TABLES : SINGLE
699
SINGLE WHITE MALES
43. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Lower level males are usually
married by this age. If single, total outlets still average 3.3 per week. Most males
ignore the law and have intercourse (86%), some (61%) with prostitutes, 62%
still masturbate, 60% have emissions, 22% have homosexual. of outlet from
intercourse (including 16% from prostitutes), highly promiscuous. Only 34
outlet from masturbation. All other outlets minor. Personality disturbances over
sex rare, more often products of inadequate personalities rather than of sex.
Inhibited only in regard to nudity, oral eroticism, and other petting techniques.
44. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. More active than average of whole
lower level (Group 43). Intercourse accepted by 91%, 66% having some with
prostitutes, nearly 80% of outlet from intercourse. Masturbation once every two
weeks for 63%, homosexual nearly as often for 29%. Group accepts sex, may be
promiscuous, is often infected with venereal disease.
45. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Rather less active than city males
(Group 44), having notably fewer socio-sexual contacts; intercourse, petting,
prostitutes, and homosexual all lower. Intercourse supplies 68% of outlet for
80% of farm-bred males, masturbation supplies 45% for 64%, homosexual sup-
plies 25% of outlet for 17%. At this age, animal intercourse minor for Eastern
rural males, often a distinct part of Western rural histories.
46. Age 21-25. Educ, level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Typical of lower level group,
as described above (Group 43).
47. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Cath., inactive. Not differing from whole lower
level group (Group 43), except in an apparently higher incidence (40%) of homo-
sexual contacts. At this age, inactive Protestants and inactive Catholics are so
far away from their churches that religion does not have enough direct effect to
differentiate two groups.
48. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Active, with mean total outlet
of 3.0, but this lower than in younger males (mean of 3.3). Many involved in wide
variety of activities. Most important is intercourse (for 74% this averages 58%
of outlet), masturbation (for 76%, averages 35% of outlet), and homosexual (for
38%, averages 29% of outlet). Homosexual attractive to group, but many evi-
dence conflict by condemning it and punishing the homosexual partner. This and
next age group includes the street-walking, tavern-frequenting, exhibitionistic
city homosexual group. Masturbation often shunned, not really accepted. All
other outlets minor. Many accept nudity, oral eroticism, and petting; others as
inhibited as grade school level (Group 43) on these points.
49. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Adequately covered by description of
whole high school level (Group 48). A larger number (43%) has some homosexual
experience, drawing 34 theix outlet from that source.
Table 152 . Clinical Tables (continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
1 FREQ. PER WEEK
1 % OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID.
AGE
21-25
OUTLET
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
L^auc. level
50.
Protest., inactive
Total
130
99
14.0
2.9
2.1
—
—
Mast.
130
75
5.0
1.1
0.7
100
39.8
35.0
Emiss.
130
72
2.0
0.4
0.2
80
15.9
7.5
Pet.
130
26
2.0
0.2
0.1
35
7.0
0.8
Interc.
132
80
11.0
1.6
0.7
100
55.3
60.0
Prost.
130
46
1.0
0.2
0.1
100
14.1
1.6
Homo.
130
32
5.0
1.2
0.8
100
32.2
30.8
Educ. level 13+
51.
Whole group
Total
1898
100
21.0
2.5
1.9
—
—
Mast.
1898
87
15.0
1.5
0.9
100
59.4
65.2
Emiss.
1898
87
7.0
0.4
0.3
100
26.6
13.6
Pet.
1898
52
7.0
0.4
0.1
100
14.6
2.3
Interc.
1593
54
17.0
0.8
0.3
100
27.4
15.3
Prost.
1898
17
3.0
0.2
0.1
40
3.5
0.7
Homo.
1898
9
7.0
1.0
0.3
95
24.5
9.6
Anim.
1898
1
1.0
0.3
0.1
35
10.1
3.0
52.
Urban
Total
1844
100
21.0
2.6
2.0
_
Mast.
1844
87
15.0
1.6
0.9
100
57.5
61.4
Emiss.
T844
86
6.5
0.5
0.3
100
28.4
16.4
Pet.
1753
54
7.0
0.4
0.1
100
14.8
3.7
Interc.
1377
55
17.0
0.8
0.3
100
27.6
15.8
Prost.
1753
18
3.0
0.2
0.1
40
4.4
0.8
Homo.
1844
10
7.0
0.9
0.3
100
25.9
15.0
Amm.
1753
1
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.5
0.7
53.
Rural
Total
266
99
9.0
2.2
1.7
Mast.
266
86
7.0
1.4
1.0
100
66.2
73.6
Emiss.
266
89
4.5
0.4
0.3
100
29.1
14.4
Pet.
266
44
1.5
0.2
0.1
45
6.2
0.7
Interc.
200
47
6.0
0.7
0.3
100
26.0
9.7
Prost.
266
16
0.5
0.1
0.1
5
1.1
0.6
Homo.
266
9
2.5
0.6
0.2
60
15.1
6.3
Anim.
266
4
1.0
0.4
0.3
35
14.3
12.5
54.
Protest., active
Total
384
100
11.0
2.0
1.4
Mast.
384
84
6.0
1.3
0.8
100
63.5
68.8
Emiss.
384
90
5.0
0.5
0.3
100
35.3
23.7
Pet.
339
48
3.0
0.4
0.1
90
14.6
1.4
Interc.
348
32
7.5
0.6
0.2
95
19.7
5.8
Prost.
339
7
0.5
0.1
0.1
30
5.0
0.8
Homo.
384
6
3.5
0.6
0.2
40
15.5
6.9
Anim.
339
1
0.5
0.2
0.2
25
16.8
13.0
55.
Protest., inactive
Total
1000
100
17.0
2.6
2.0
Mast.
1000
90
12.0
1.6
0.9
100
59.9
65.2
Emiss.
1000
87
6.0
0.4
0.3
100
24.6
12.4
Pet.
841
51
4.5
0.4
0.1
95
13.0
1.1
Interc.
867
59
9.0
0.7
0.3
100
26.1
13.9
Prost.
841
19
1.0
0.1
0.1
30
2.6
0.7
Homo.
1000
11
6.5
0.8
0.2
100
22.6
8.1
Anim.
841
1
1.0
0.4
0.1
20
8.6
5.0
56.
Cath., devout
Total
94
100
7.0
1.9
1.3
Mast.
94
79
5.0
1.0
0.5
100
53.6
52.5
Emiss.
94
90
3.5
0.5
0.3
100
41.4
34.2
Pet.
94
53
1.5
0.3
0.1
55
15,4
6.3
Interc.
71
38
4.0
0.7
0.3
100
26.2
20.0
Prost.
94
12
0.5
0.3
0.1
Scant
3.6
0.8
Homo.
94
11
2.0
0.7
0,3
35
16.8
.
3.0
700
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
701
SINGLE WHITE MATES
50. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Almost exactly as described
for whole high school level at this age (Group 48).
51. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. Many college level males are
still unmarried at this age. They often disclaim moral restraints, but are most in-
hibited of all social levels. Highly erotic, often involved in social relations and
petting with females, and highly aroused but still avoiding coitus. Some upset
when they do have intercourse or (particularly) the homosexual. Hardly more
than attempt intercourse, and they derive only 15% of outlet from it. 87% still
depend on masturbation for % of outlet, rarely upset over that. 87% derive 14%
of outlet from emissions. Other outlets minor. About 69% of outlet from solitary
sources. In contrast to grade school group, this college group freely accepts nud-
ity and elaborate petting techniques. Oral techniques in experience of 35%, more
often in next age period.
52. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13 +. Urban. Almost exactly as described for whole
college level of this age (Group 51).
53. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+* Rural. Very close to their urban equivalents
(Group 52), therefore closely matching the description given for whole college
level at this age (Group 51). A little less often in socio-sexual contacts — petting
in 44%, intercourse in 47%, homosexual in 9%. 86% of group derives ^ of outlet
from masturbation. Animal intercourse remains in histories of 4%, who derive
12.5% of their outlet therefrom.
54. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Protest., active. Definitely restrained version
of college group (Group 51). Even more likely to present cases of conflict over
sexual activities they do have. Masturbation in 84%, provides 69% of outlet.
Depend on emissions (average 24% of outlet for 90% of males) more often than
non-rehgious males. Petting in only 48%, intercourse in 32%, prostitutes in 7%,
homosexual in 6% — all minor sources of outlet.
55. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Definitely less restrained
than corresponding group of active Protestants (Group 54). More (90%) accept
masturbation; emissions are less important. Petting (51%), intercourse (59%),
with prostitutes ( 19 %), and homosexual (11%) are decidedly more frequent, and
all had with less disturbance than in religious group.
56. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Cath., devout. College level pattern (Group
51), more restrained than average, but less restrained than active Protestants.
Sometimes in serious conflict over sex (although often claiming to be examples
of sublimation). Mean total outlet (1.9), petting (53%) same as in non-devout,
but intercourse in only half as many (38%).
Table 152. Clinical Tables {continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
CASES
INCID. !
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 21-25
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 134-
57. Cath., inactive
Total
125
100
14.0
2.9
2.1
—
—
—
Mast.
125
82
8.5
1.4
0.8
100
42.0
40 0
Emiss.
125
88
3.0
0 5
0.3
100
27.9
14.2
Pet.
125
52
3.0
0.3
0.1
90
13.8
3.0
Interc.
80
75
6.0
1.3
0.5
100
40.8
32.5
Prost.
125
27
1.5
0.2
0.1
35
6.4
1.5
Homo.
125
15
4.5
1.7
1.5
90
45.1
47.5
58. Jewish, inactive
Total
331
100
17.0
3.1
2.4
—
Mast.
331
86
15.0
1.8
1.0
100
54.3
54.0
Emiss.
331
81
6.5
0.5
0.3
100
26.9
16.4
Pet.
331
69
3.0
0.3
0.2
90
15.0
5.6
Interc.
182
67
12.0
1.1
0.4
100
30.8
21.9
Prost.
331
24
2.0
0 3
0.1
10
1.7
0.7
AGE: 26-30
Homo.
331
8
3.5
0.9
0.1
75
42.0
47.5
59. Whole group
Total
550
99
17.0
2.7
1.9
—
Mast.
550
77
9.0
1.2
0.7
100
47.3
45.3
Emiss.
550
79
4.0
0.4
0.2
100
23.0
10.7
Pet.
550
34
4 0
0.3
0.1
90
12.3
0.9
Interc.
607
66
16 0
1.5
0.7
100
49 3
46.8
Prost.
550
30
4.0
0.5
0.3
100
22.8
10.8
Homo.
550
25
15.0
1.5
0.7
100
37.0
28.9
Educ. level 0-8
60. Whole group
Total
159
99
19.0
3.1
2.0
—
—
—
Mast.
159
60
7.0
1.0
0.5
100
33.9
24.6
Emiss.
159
65
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
14.4
4.6
Pet.
159
19
1.0
0.3
0.1
40
4.8
0.6
Interc.
137
88
4.0
2.1
1.2
100
67.5
74.4
Prost.
159
72
5.5
0.6
0.4
100
30.2
20.8
Homo.
159
28
5.5
1.4
0.5
100
29.9 j
20.0
61. Urban
Total
88
99
16.0
3.1
2.1
Mast.
88
65
7.0
1.0
0.5
100
29.3
21 0
Emiss.
88
64
2.0
0.3
0.1
60
12.0
3.8
Pet.
88
17
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
3.2
0.6
Interc.
92
90
13.0
2.1
1.5
100
67.8
73.3
Prost.
88
75
4.0
0.8
0.4
100
27.7
21.1
Homo.
88
35
4.5
1.0
0.4
100
25.5
12.5
62. Protest., inactive
Total
77
100
13.0
2.7
2.1
Mast.
77
68
1 3.5
0.8
0.4
100
30.7
21.9
Emiss.
77
70
1.5
0.3
0.1
95
14.3
5.4
Pet.
77
20
1.0
0.4
0.1
40
6.7
0.7
Interc.
80
93
13.0
1.9
1.1
100
67.8
75.8
Prost.
77
75
3.0
0.6
0.3
100
28.7
20.3
Homo.
77
19
3.5
1.3
j 0.6
75
1 29.8
25.0
Educ. level 9-12
l
63. Whole group
Total
117
99
14.0
2.9
2.1
—
—
—
Mast.
117
79
5.0
1.0
0.5
100
37.8
36.9
Emiss.
117
70
2.0
0.3
0.2
85
16.9
8.2
Pet.
117
26
1.0
0.2
0.1
45
7.9
0.7
Interc.
95
72
11.0
1.6
0.9
100
51.7
51.3
Prost.
117
43
2.0
0.4
0.2
80
24.2
8.0
Homo.
117
46
11.0
1.6
0.7
95
36.9
36.7
702
CLINICAL TABLES : SINGLE
703
SINGLE WHITE M AT PS
57. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+, Cath., inactive. One of less restrained college
groups. Incidence of coitus half again as high (75%) as in whole college group;
prostitutes in 27%. Nevertheless, the restraint of whole college group (Group 51)
is still evident, and masturbation provides largest portion of outlet for 82%,
Homosexual provides nearly 3^^ of outlet for 15% of males.
58. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, inactive. Highest total outlet (3.1)
among college groups (Group 51). definitely less restrained than average college
male in socio-sexual activities. Masturbation still provides 54% of outlet for
86%, petting in 69% of histories. Intercourse in 67%, provides 22% of outlet
therefrom. Prostitutes in 24%, but very minor outlet; homosexual in a few.
59. Age 26-30. Whole group. Shows some effect of aging, mean total outlet
averaging only 2.7. Males of grade and high school levels who are unmarried by
this age begin to be a select group. Some are prevented from marrying by un-
toward, circumstances, some are actively and promiscuously heterosexual and dis-
inclined to settle down to a single partner in marriage, and to nearly 3^ have
homosexual histories, a fair number of which are now so pronounced as to inter-
fere with marriage. Clinician might well determine reason for delay in marriage
in each case. College level males more often unmarried because of custom of
group or because of demands of an extended education, less often because of
sexual situations. Patterns now well fixed, not liable to re-direction.
60. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Least inhibited of social levels.
Nearly all actively involved in intercourse (88%), prostitutes increasingly im-
portant (in 72%) because easier to secure. 74% of outlet from intercourse, prac-
tically unaffected by moral arguments. Masturbation quite taboo, but still in
60% for whom it supplies 25% of outlet. Homosexual in 28%, for many of whom
it constitutes a material source and sometimes the sole source of outlet.
61. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. The city-bred portion of this lower edu-
cational level is almost exactly as described for whole group above (Group 60),
except that even a larger number (35%) has homosexual which, however, is not
an important outlet. Quite unrestrained, often carefree and promiscuous.
62. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Pattern close to that of whole
lower level at this age (Group 60). Quite unrestrained, with 93% having inter-
course. Apparently fewer males (19%) involved in homosexual.
63. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Single males of this level quite
unrestrained in late twenties. Masturbation 79%, emissions 70%, petting in 26%,
intercourse in 72% of whom 43% have some with prostitutes. Incidence of homo-
sexual apparently higher (46%) than in any other segment of entire male popu-
lation, because many heterosexual males have left the group for marriage. Some
of most active homosexual cases here, sometimes upset, over-react to social
pressures, this and previous age group including street-walking, tavern-frequent-
ing, exhibitionistic city groups.
Table 152. Clinical Tables (continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
CASES
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE
: 26-30
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 9-12
64.
Urban
Total
73
97
14.0
3.1
2.3
—
—
—
Mast.
73
81
4.5
1.0
0.5
100
40.3
41.3
Emiss.
73
70
1.5
0.3
0.2
85
15.0
7.9
Pet.
73
25
0.5
0.1
0.1
45
8.3
0.7
Interc.
77
68
9.0
1.4
0.8
100
48.1
42.5
Prost.
73
34
2.0
0.5
0.3
80
26.3
10.0
Homo.
73
52
11.0
1.8
0.8
95
38.3
37.5
65.
Protest., inactive
Total
51
98
12.0
3.1
2.3
Mast.
51
75
3.0
0.9
0.6
100
36.4
38.8
'
Emiss.
51
73
2.0
0.4
0.3
75
18.2
11.0
Pet.
51
18
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
4.7
0.8
Interc.
53
72
9.0
1.6
0.9
100
50.9
51.3
Prost.
51
39
1.0
0.3
0.2
80
19.8
6.9
Homo.
51
49
5.5
1.7
0.9
85
38.9
42.5
Educ. level 13+
66.
Whole group
Total
487
100
17.0
2.6
1.8
—
—
—
Mast.
487
83
10.0
1.4
0.7
100
53.9
55.8
Emiss.
487
85
4.0
0.4
0.3
100
26.7
13.3
Pet.
487
45
3.0
0.3
0.1
90
14.2
2.6
Interc.
373
56
15.0
1.1
0.5
100
37.6
28.4
Prost.
487
16
6.0
0.5
0.1
25
4.5
0.9
Homo.
487
17
5.0
1.3
0.7
100
41.3
37.5
Anim.
487
1
Scant
0.4
0.6
Scant
6.8
8.0
67.
Urban
Total
479
100
17.0
2.7
1.9
__
Mast.
479
86
10.0
1.4
0.7
100
51.6
51.4
Emiss.
479
85
4.0
0.4
0.3
100
26.2
13.0
Pet.
445
47
3.0
0.3
0.1
90
15.7
4.1
Interc.
308
59
15.0
1.2
0.5
100
36.6
26.7
Prost.
445
19
6.0
0.5
0.1
25
4.6
0.9
Homo.
479
17
5.0
1.4
0.6
100
43.4
46.3
68.
Rural
Total
85
99
8.0
2.2
1.5
Mast.
85
79
7.0
1.4
0.9
100
63.1
75.0
Emiss.
85
86
1.0
0.3
0.3
100
30.6
, 14.7
Pet.
85
43
0.5
0.1
0.1
35
7.1
! 0.8
Interc.
58
45
5.0
1.1
0.5
100
43.5
38.8
Prost.
85
7
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
0.5
1.0
Homo.
85
15
1.5
0.7
0.4
35
25.1
10.0
69.
Protest., active
Total
100
100
7.0
1.9
1.3
Mast.
100
82
5.5
1.2
0.7
1 100
59.5
62.5
Emiss.
100
95
2.5
0.4
0.3
100
37.1
30.7
Pet.
100
42
2.5
0.4
0.1
75
14.4
1.5
Interc.
88
35
2.5
0.5
0.3
90
24.5
16.3
Prost.
100
9
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
3.4
0.8
Homo.
100
10
3,5
1.1
0.4
30
23.3
14.2
70.
Protest., inactive
Total
279
100
16.0
2.6
1.8
Mast.
279
88
9.0
1.5
0.8
100
57.0
62.0
Emiss.
279
85
1.5
0.3
0.2
100
23.8
10.7
Pet.
279
44
2.0
0.3
0.1
75
12.3
0.9
Interc.
187
60
3.0
0.7
0.3
100
28.9
18.6
Prost.
279
15
5.5
0.4
0.1
15
3.5
0.9
Homo.
279
21
5.0
1.1
0.5
100
36.4
29.2
704
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
705
SINGLE WHITE MALES
64. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Typical of whole high school level
(Group 63). Heterosexual slightly lower, homosexual rather higher. Intercourse
in of cases accounting for 43% of outlet, half as many cases with some pros-
titute contacts. Masturbation in 81% accounting for 41% of their outlet. Homo-
sexual in more than half, accounting for more than of their outlet.
65. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Pattern very close to that
described for whole high school level (Group 63).
66. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. Even in late twenties males of
college level are remarkably restrained. Restrained individuals increase with ad-
vancing age because more social individuals have already married. Many highly
erotic, nearly half (45%) involved in heterosexual petting, most with fantasies
during masturbation and in nocturnal dreams, but hardly more than half (56%)
yet attempting overt intercourse, and then not often, and with few partners.
Much disturbed by blockage of sexual response, and those not having intercourse
may need special consideration from clinician. Masturbation accepted, providing
56% of outlet. Petting of social value, but provides very minor outlet. Homo-
sexual (17%) is much lower than in high school group, but sometimes serious
disturbance over it. Nudity accepted, oral erotic techniques now in 57%. Pros-
titutes largely avoided, providing less than 1% of outlet. No particular VD
problem.
67. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Urban. Pattern for this city-bred group almost
exactly as described for whole college level at this age (Group 66).
68. Age 26-30. Educ, level 13+. Rural. A somewhat less active portion of col-
lege level (Group 66), differing from corresponding urban population (Group 67)
in having lower incidences in most of outlets. 79% derive of total outlet from
masturbation, 45% derive a little more than % from intercourse. Other outlets
more minor. Animal intercourse now very rare in rural histories from Eastern
part of U. S., not uncommon in histories of this and older ages from Western
areas.
69. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Protest., active. Most restrained segment of
college level in late twenties (Group 66). Mean total outlet only % as high as aver-
age for whole college group. Incidences lower on every outlet except nocturnal
emissions, 82% deriving 63% of outlet from masturbation, 95% with emissions
giving 31% of outlet. Coitus in only of group. Homosexual in 10%, which is
lowest among all groups at this age. Clinician may expect sexual conflicts here.
70. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Not materially different
from average for whole college level of this age (Group 66),
Table 152. Clinical Tables {continued)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLEf
AGE: 26-30
Educ. level 13+
AGE: 31-35
72. Whole group
Educ. level 0-8
73. Whole group
Educ. level 13+
Whole group
5. Urban
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Total
104
100
15.0
3.2
Mast.
104
80
6 0
1.3
Emiss.
104
75
4.0
0.4
Pet.
104
57
1.5
0.3
Interc.
77
84
15.0
2.0
Prost.
104
28
2.0
0.8
Homo.
104
8
3.0
1.4
Total
195
99
14 0
2.4
Mast.
195
71
7.0
1.0
Emiss.
195
71
1.5
0.3
Pet.
195
24
1.0
0.3
Interc.
223
68
13.0
1.5
Prost.
195
41
3.0
0.6
Homo.
195
30
4.5
1.7
Total
67
99
9.5
2 8
Mast.
67
70
4.0
0.9
Emiss.
67
61
1.5
0.3
Pet,
67
8
0 5
0.3
Interc.
70
84
7.0
1 4
Prost.
67
66
3.0
0.8
Homo.
67
30 I
4.0
2.5
6. Protest., inactive Total
Total
87
99
Mast.
1 87
77
Emiss.
87
83
Pet,
87
32
Interc,
107
58
Prost,
87
16
Homo.
87
26
Total
72
100
Mast.
72
78
Emiss.
72
86
Pet.
72
32
Interc.
89
61
Prost.
72
17
Homo.
72
28
Total
53
98
Range
Mean
Med
100
39.9
31.7
100
16.3
8.8
35
10.0
3.8
100
53.6
56.7
45
11.4
1.0
100
53 S
65.0
100
40.4
33.3
100
21.7
8.3
80
13.7
1.0
100
58.5
63.0
100
28.7
20.7
100
46,9
50.0
90
30.6
20.0
100
17.0
6.7
5
2.5
1.0
100
61.4
70.0
100
37.8
31.3
100
48.3
37.5
100
51.0
48.8
100
22.8
8.6
80
17.7
9.2
100
49.9
46.3
15
4.1
0.9
100
48.5
56.7
100
48.6
47.5
100
23.2
9.1
50
16.4
10.0
100
51.4
48.8
15
4.7
1.7
90
50.4
54.2
100
49.5
40.0
m
20.4
12.9
7.5
3.0
100
15
40.6
A 7
35.0
1 7
85
52.7
1 . /
60.0
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
707
SINGLE WHITE MALES
71. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Jewish, inactive. Socio-sexually most active
of all college groups (Group 66). Many Jewish males are slow in starting sexual
activity and inhibited during their earher years (Groups 21, 42); but those who
are unmarried in late twenties become distinctly freer. Clinician will do well to
examine possibility of maladjustment due to change of pattern. 84% now have
intercourse, which accounts for 57% of outlet. Only 3 .^ of these have any inter-
course with prostitutes. Masturbation still accounts for ^ of outlet for 80%.
Homosexual incidence low.
72. Age 31-35. Whole group. Males who are unmarried by this age often have
special problems in socio-sexual adjustment. Only % are having intercourse, de-
riving 2 ,^ of total outlet therefrom, of these depend in part on prostitutes — a
further indication of difficulty in making socio-sexual advances. This is par-
ticularly true at lower educational levels. Masturbation still in ^ of histories, ac-
counting for of outlet of those males. Homosexual in nearly of histories, ac-
counting for ^ of their outlet, many individuals primarily or exclusively homo-
sexual by this age. Rates of outlet lowered by advancing age. A fair number of
individuals derive their total outlet now from a single source.
73. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Similar to whole age group de-
scribed above (Group 72). More intercourse, especially with prostitutes. 84%
draw 70% of outlet from intercourse, but 66% get of outlet from intercourse
with prostitutes. Petting nearly absent. Many lower level males have increasing
difficulty in finding sexual partners as they grow older. Some persons physically
handicapped, mentally dull, and physically unattractive, and a satisfactory ad-
justment with prostitutes is about all that can be hoped for. Masturbation in
70% but not really accepted by group. Often with strong taboos against nudity
and variety of techniques. of group with some homosexual history, many ex-
clusively homosexual, this not leading to conflict as often as in upper social,
levels.
74. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. As described for whole age
group above (Group 72), except for a somewhat higher dependence on masturba-
tion and emissions, and a lower utilization of intercourse. Contacts with pros-
titutes rare. These males still in conflict over moral aspects of socio-sexual con-
tacts. have never yet had intercourse, and little possibility of most of them ever
developing facility in securing such contacts. Only a portion is homosexual.
75. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13+. Urban. Almost exactly as described for whole
college-bred portion of this age group (Group 74).
76. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13 +. Protest., inactive. Almost exactly as described
for whole college-bred portion of this age group (Group 74).
Table 152. Clinical Tables {concluded)
SINGLE WHITE MALES
SOURCE
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID.
OF
cases
1 V
OUTLET
1 /o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
AGE: 36-40
1
77. Whole group
Total
97
98
9.0
2.1
1.4
Mast.
97
63
7.0
1.2
0.6
100
47.1
45.0
Emiss.
97
60
1.5
0.2
0.1
100
19.1
6.4
Pet.
97
11
0.5
0.2
0.1
35
13.0
1.0
Interc.
no
70
8.5
1.3
0.6
100
57.7
60.0
Prost.
97
49
2.5
0.5
0.3
100
39.5
35.0
AGE: 41-45
Homo.
97
40
4.0
1.1
0.7
100
42.2
37.5
78. Whole group
Total
56 '
96
7.5
1.9
1.1
Mast.
56
61
7.0
1.0
0.4
100
43.7
32.5
Emiss.
56
48
0.5
0.2
0.1
100
19.5
8.3
Pet.
56
11
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
1\1
0.9
Interc.
61
66
6.5
1.1
0.5
100
66.6
73.8
Prost.
56
39
1.5
0.5
0.3
100
48.2
47.5
Homo.
56 j
38
5.0
1.2
0.5
100
42.2
35.0
708
CLINICAL tables: SINGLE
709
SINGLE WHITE MALES
77. Age 36-40. Whole group. Frequencies of total outlet have been declining
since late teens, now average 2.1. Males unmarried by this age include some who
are heterosexuaily very active but unwilling to settle down with a single partner;
some who are timid or otherwise handicapped for making socio-sexual contacts,
and some who are primarily or exclusively homosexual. Group rather too old to
modify patterns, and clinician’s function primarily one of helping individual ac-
cept whatever pattern he now has. Occasionally marriage at this or later age is
successful, usually not.
78. Age 41-45. Whole group. A continuation of all trends described for pre-
vious age group (Group 77). Remarks made there apply in even greater force to
this older group.
Table 153. Clinical Tables
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
CASES
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK.
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 16-20
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
79. Whole group
Total
272
100
28.0
4.7
3.2
_
Mast.
272
39
3.0
0.4
0.1
65
9.9
2.3
Emiss.
272
53
2.5
0.3
0.1
65
5 6
1.3
Interc.
272
100
25.0
3.8
2.6
100
84.6
95.3
Extra.
272
38
7.5
1.2
0.3
75
18.0
9.7
Prost.
272
14
2.0
0.3
0.1
15
2.9
0.7
Homo.
272
9
6.0
1.2
0.3
30
9.2
4.1
Educ. level 0-8
80. Whole group
Total
158
100
29.0
4.7
3.1
Mast.
158
29
2.5
0.4
0.1
50
10.1
2.6
Emiss.
158
48
2.5
0.3
0.1
50
5.3
1.0
Interc.
158
100
28.0
3.7
2.5
100
83.9
95.3
Extra.
158
44
7.0
1.2
0.5
60
18.4
12.5
Prost.
158
17
0.5
0.2
0 1
10
2.1
0.8
Homo.
158
10
4.5
1.4
0.4
30
10.1
4.5
81. Urban
Total
97
100
20.0
4.7
3.0
Mast.
97
32
2.0
0.4
0.1
50
9.5
2.1
Emiss.
97
54
2.5
0.4
0.1
50
6.4
1.2
Interc.
97
100
18.0
3.5
2.3
100
81.5
95.1
Extra.
97
47
7.0
1.4
0.5
60
20.6
14.2
Prost.
97
19
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.4
0.8
Homo.
97
12
4.0
1.5
0.4
30
11.5
7.5
82. Protest., inactive
Total
96
100
24 0
4.7
3.0
Mast.
96
31
2.5
0.5
0.2
50
10.8
2.4
Emiss.
96
53
2.0
0.2
0.1
40
4.4
0.9
Interc.
96
100
18.0
3.8
2.4
100
84.5
95.6
Extra.
96
44
4.5
1.2
0.5
60
18 2
12.5
Prost.
96
17
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.5
0.8
Homo.
96
7
4.0
1.4
0.1
30
9.8
3.0
Educ. level 9-12
83. Whole group
Total
87
100
24.0
5.1
3.6
Mast.
87
39
3.0
0.4
0.1
50
7.1
1.0
Emiss.
87
54
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.0
1.8
Interc.
87
100
17.0
4.1
2 8
100
85.9
95.9
Extra.
87
38
6.0
1.4
0.2
60
18.6
10.0
Prost.
87
16
2.0
0.5
0.1
10
4.4
0.8
Homo.
87
9
1.0
1.1
0.4
15
7.1
3.8
84. Urban
Total
61
100
20.0
4.7
3.6
Mast.
61
39
3.0
0.4
0.1
50
7.4
1.3
Emiss.
61
57
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.3
1 .0
Interc.
61
100
16.0
3.6
2.8
100
83.3
95.5
Extra.
61
43
6,0
1.6
0.4
60
21.1
15.8
Prost.
61
20
0.5
0.4
0.1
5
4.5
0.7
Homo.
61
11
1.0
1.3
0.4
15
7.6
4.0
85, Protest., inactive
Total
60
100
20.0
4.5
3.3
Mast.
60
35
1.0
0.2
0.1
10
3.1
0.9
Emiss.
60
52
0.5
0 2
0.1
20
4.1
1 .4
Interc.
60
100
16.0
3.8
2.8
100
88.5
96.4
Extra.
60
40
6.0
1.3
0.1
60
17.9
4.0
Prost.
60
12
0.5
0.6
0.1
5
7.3
1.0
3.0
Homo.
60
5
0.5
0.2
0.3
5
2.2
710
CLINICAL TABLES : MARRIED
711
Table 153. Clinical Tables
married white males
79e Age 16-20. Whole group. Males married at this age have maximum sexual
performance of any group in total population. Mean total outlet 4.7, frequencies
for many individuals going to 10, 14, or even 20 per week, with no ill effects.
95% of outlet from marital intercourse, more in high school level; not enough
males of college level married at this age to warrant generalizations, but some
proportion of grade school males marrying before twenty.
80. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. 95% of total outlet of group de-
rived from marital intercourse, but nearly of lower level males have extra-
marital intercourse which accounts for 13% of their outlet. Frequencies of all
other outlets low, although a fair number involved in masturbation, emissions,
and the homosexual, even while living with wives. Group often irresponsible,
many quickly deserting wives, some not self-supporting, becoming drifters,
sometimes involved in petty underworld activities. Many promiscuous in extra-
marital relations, VD rates rather high.
81. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Almost precisely as described for the
whole lower educational level (Group 80).
82. Age 16-20. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Almost precisely as de-
scribed for the whole lower educational level (Group 80).
83. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Remarkably close to grade
school group of same age (Group 80). 96% of total outlet of whole group from
maritarintercourse, 38% get 10% from extra-marital intercourse, 9% get 4%
from homosexual. More acceptant of extra-marital intercourse at this age than
later. All other outlets very minor. Group probably more reliable, more balanced
than corresponding grade school group. Considerable diversity in mental
ability and educational background, similar diversity in regard to religious re-
straint and sexual inhibition. Devoutly religious persons often traditional in
respect to sexual mores, but group as a whole nowhere near as restrained as
college level.
84. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Almost precisely as described for
whole high school level (Group 83). 43% having extra-marital intercourse, which
accounts for 16% of total outlet, and some marital discord may grow out of this.
Extra-marital relations for this group are reduced in later age periods.
85. Age 16-20. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Not materially different
from whole high school level as described above (Group 83). Not closely enough
connected with church backgrounds to have behavior materially affected, unless
in regard to extra-marital intercourse which accounts for only 4% of total outlet
of 40% of males.
Table 153. Clinical Tables (continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
AGE; 21-25
86. Whole group
Educ. level 0-8
87. Whole group
88. Urban
89. Rural
90. Protest., inactive
Educ. level 9-12
91. Whole group
92. Urban
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
CASES
Total
751
Mast.
751
Emiss.
751
Interc.
751
Extra.
751
Prost.
751
Homo.
751
Total
324
Mast.
324
Emiss.
324
Interc.
324
Extra.
324
Prost.
324
Homo.
324
Total
162
Mast.
162
Emiss.
162
Interc.
162
Extra.
162
Prost.
162
Homo.
162
Total
128
Mast.
128
Emiss.
128
Interc.
128
Extra.
128
Prost.
128
Homo.
1 128
Total
206
Mast
206
Emiss.
206
Interc.
206
Extra.
206
Prost.
206
Homo.
206
Total
164
Mast
164
Emiss.
164
Interc.
164
Extra.
164
Prost.
164
Homo.
164
Total
107
Mast.
107
Emiss.
107
Interc.
107
Extra.
107
Prost.
107
Homo.
107
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID.
%
100
48
59
100
27
13
8
100
29
45
99
34
15
9
100
33
48
98
41
20
14
100
25
40
100
25
9
6
100
30
47
100
35
16
10
100
42
63
100
42
25
13
100
41
64
100
46
29
16
Range
29.0
4.0
4.0
29.0
18.0
2.0
3.0
29.0
3.0
2.0
28.0
18.0
2.0
3.5
29.0
3.0
2.0
20 0
18.0
1.0
3.5
17.0
1.0
1.5
16 0
2.0
0.5
0.5
29.0
3.0
2.0
17.0
18.0
1.0
1.0
26.0
3.0
1.0
25.0
7.0
2.0
2.0
20.0
3.0
1.0
15.0
7.0
2.0
0.5
Mean
3.9
0.5
0.2
3.2
1.2
0.2
0.4
4.0
0.3
0.3
3.3
1.5
0.2
0.6
4.4
0.4
0.3
3.5
1.8
0.2
0.6
3.4
0.3
0.2
3.0
0.6
0.2
0.4
4.2
0.4
0.2
3.3
1.8
0.2
0.4
4.2
0.4
0.2
3.4
1.1
0.3
0.3
4.1
0.4
0.2
3.1
1.3
0.2
0.2
Med.
2.8
0.2
0.1
2.3
0.3
0.1
0.1
2.6
0.1
0.1
2.2
0.3
0.1
0.1
2.9
0.1
0.1
2.4
0.3
0.1
0.1
2.3
0.1
0.1
2.0
0.3
0.1
0.1
2.7
0.1
0.1
2.3
0.4
0.1
0.1
2.9
0.1
0.1
2.5
0.3
0.1
0.1
3.0
0.1
0.1
2.6
0.4
0.1
0.1
Range
90
70
100
95
50
50
75
45
100
90
40
25
50
45
100
90
30
25
40
20
100
40
5
5
50
35
100
75
40
10
75
30
100
70
30
15
70
30
100
70
30
15
Mean
12.2
6.5
85.3
16.0
4.0
7.6
8.5
5.3
87.7
19.5
4.5
3. '9
7.9
5.8
86.4
20.5
4.5
4.9
8.7
3.7
90.9
15.5
5.5
1.3
8.4
4.4
87.8
19.7
4.7
3.9
7.6
4.8
85.7
16.0
4.4
3.8
8.6
5.0
83.4
19.2
4.6
3.6
Med.
4.0
1.7
95 2
5.4
0.8
1 4
2.4
1.0
96.0
11.9
0.9
1.0
2 7
1 0
95.8
10.0
0.9
2 2
2.7
0.9
96.5
13.3
1.0
0.9
2.0
1.0
96.0
15.6
0.9
2.0
1.0
1.0
95.2
5.5
0.7
1.0
1.0
1.0
94.1
10.0
0.7
0.9
712
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
713
married white males
86. Age 21-25. Whole group. A very high proportion of males at this age are
now married except in college level. Mean total outlet only 3.9, which is defi-
nitely below mean for males who are married in late teens. Extra-marital inter-
course in accounting for 5% of outlet, homosexual in 8%, masturbation in 48%,
but niost masturbation among males of college level. Marital intercourse ac-
counting for 95% of total outlet. All other outlets minor except for extra-marital
intercourse in certain groups.
87. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Mean total outlet 4.0. Most from
marital intercourse, frequencies commonly 7 and in many cases 14 and 20 per
week. Intercourse with minimum of pre-coital petting, entire relation usually
completed in 2 to 5 minutes. Males give little consideration to female orgasm,
but females in actuality more often reaching orgasm and sexual relation satis-
factory for them more often than in college level. Marital discord rarely originat-
ing from unsatisfactory sexual relations, but often resulting from extra-marital
intercourse which involves of group and supplies 12% of their outlet. Drinking,
non-support, physical cruelty to wife are most common sources of manital diffi-
culty. Masturbation, emissions, and homosexual in limited number of histories
and supplying only minor portion of outlet.
88. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Much as described for whole grade
school level (Group 87). City-bred males are, however, somewhat more active
sexually, with mean total outlet 4.4. 41% with extra-marital intercourse, 14%
with homosexual. Often considerable irresponsibility in marriage.
89. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8, Rural. General pattern as described above for
whole grade school level (Group 87), but definitely less active. Not a product of
restraint as much as of less developed social interest and facility, even with wife.
Mean rate of marital intercourse 3.0, and rates of 7 and more much less frequent.
Marital intercourse supplying 97% of outlet. Extra-marital intercourse in only
i' 4 , supplying 13% of their outlet. Masturbation, emissions, and homosexual in
fewer instances than in city group.
90. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Protest, inactive. Closely matching descrip-
tion given for whole grade school level (Group 87). Less active than urban group
(Group 88), with fewer persons involved in extra-marital intercourse or homo-
sexual. Religious backgrounds too remote to have much direct influence.
91. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Most active group of males of
this age, with mean total outlet 4.2, with high frequencies of marital intercourse
in individual cases, and with highest incidences of extra-marital intercourse and
homosexual experience after marriage. 95% of outlet from marital intercourse,
all other outlets minor, but masturbation, emissions, extra-marital intercourse,
experience with prostitutes, and homosexual in a considerable portion of all
histories.
92. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. A rather active group, with general
pattern as described above for whole high school level (Group 91), nearly with
extra-marital intercourse, which accounts for 10% of their outlet. One in six with
homosexual activity, averaging one in two months. Masturbation and emissions
with about same frequency as homosexual but with higher incidences.
Table 153. Clinical Tables {continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
cases
INCID-
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 21-25
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 9-12
93. Protest., inactive
Total
108
100
21.0
3.8
2.7
—
—
—
Mast.
108
41
3.0
0.4
0.1
75
7.6
0.9
Emiss.
108
63
1.0
0.2
0.1
25
4.5
0.9
Interc.
108
100
20.0
3.1
2.3
100
85.1
95.3
Extra.
108
47
7.0
1.0
0.3
70
16.9
5.0
Prost.
108
29
2.0
0.2
0.1
30
4.5
0.7
Homo.
108
12
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.8
1.0
Educ. level 13 -f-
94. Whole group
Total
440
100
22.0
3.7
3.1
—
—
—
Mast.
440
66
4.0
0.5
0.2
85
14.9
5.8
Emiss.
440
66
4.0
0.3
0.1
70
7.9
2.7
Interc.
440
100
20.0
3 1
2.5
100
82.9
91.9
Extra.
440
15
3.0
0.5
0.1
50
8.4
2.4
Prost.
440
5
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.3
0.7
Homo.
440
3
2.0
0.7
0.6
50
24 .-8
10.0
95. Urban
Total
460
100
22.0
3.7
3.1
—
Mast.
428
67
4.0
0.5
0.2
85
15.1
6.3
Emiss
460
66
4.0
0.3
0.1
70
8.3
3.0
Interc.
460
100
20.0
3.1
2.6
100
82.5
91.2
Extra.
460
16
3.0
0 5
0.1
50
8 7
2.6
Prost.
428
5
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.4
0.8
Homo.
428
3
2.0
0.6
0.5
50
24.8
10 0
96. Protest., active
Total
91
100
15.0
3.3
2.7
_
Mast.
91
60
2.0
0.4
0.2
70
14.4
4.9
Emiss.
91
67
1.5
0.3
0.1
25 )
6.5
2.7
Interc.
91
99
11.0
2.8
2.2
100
86.7
95.3
Extra.
91
8
0.5
0.5
0.1
5
7.2
0.9
97. Protest., inactive
Total
280
100
22.0
3.9
3.2
__
Mast.
280
70
4.0
0.5
0 2
70
13.9
6.0
Emiss.
280
68
4.0
0.3
0.1
70
8.5
2.7
Interc.
280
100
20.0
3.2
2.5
100
! 82.1
90.3
Extra.
280
18
2.5
0.5
0.2
30
! 7.9
3.3
Prost.
280
5
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
' 3.3
0.8
Homo.
280
3
2.0
0.7
0.7
50
34.3
30.0
AGE: 26-30
98. Whole group
Total
737
100
29.0
3.3
2.5
Mast.
737
48
4.0
0.4
0.1
90
12.5
4.2
Emiss.
737
63
3 0 1
0.2
0.1
65
6.5
1.8
Interc.
737
100
25.0 1
2.7
2.0
100
85.5
95.0
Extra.
737
29
6.0
0.6
0.1
75
12.2
4.2
Prost.
737
12
2,0
0.2
0.1
40
5.0
0.8
Homo.
737
5
2.0
0.5
0.1
50
11.4
2.8
Educ. level 0-8
99. Whole group
Total
292
99
29,0
3.5
2.4
Mast.
292
21
•4.0
0.4
0.1
70
7.7
0.8
Emiss.
292
47
2.0
0.3
0.1
50
6.2
1.0
Interc.
292
99
25.0
3.0
2.1
100
88.8
96.1
Extra.
292
35
6.0
0.8
0.3
60
14.9
8.3
Prost.
292
17
2.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.3
1.0
Homo.
292
5
1.0
0.3
0.1
10
2.8
0.9
714
CLINICAL TABLES .* MARRIED
715
married white males
93. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Almost exactly as described
for whole high school level (Group 91). Total outlet a bit lower, a mean of 3.8,
but individual outlets only slightly less than described for Group 91.
94. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13 +. Whole group. This is the most active age
period for college males, but among both single and married males this is much
the most restrained of all social levels. Only 92% of total outlet from marital in-
tercourse, and in successive age periods the proportion steadily drops. of males
still draw outlets from masturbation and nocturnal emissions. Only 1 in 7 has
extra-marital intercourse, 3% with homosexual. Even in marriage, years of pre-
marital restraint continue to affect sexual adjustment. Lack of facility in ap-
proaching even the wife for sexual relations. An occasional male with occasional
impotence because of such inhibitions, and many avoid frequencies of intercourse
higher than 3 or 4 per week on moral, ethical, or other grounds. Group does ac-
cept nudity, variety of techniques in pre-coital play, including some oral erotic
play, and these may aid in development of satisfactory sexual relations. Females
of group more restrained than males, poorly responsive or completely unrespon-
sive in a fair proportion of cases; tliis difference between male and female the
chief sexual factor in marital discord. Since group assumes marital obligations
with considerable sense of responsibility, and since higher level of education
provides esthetic and other cultural interests, marriages on a whole more stable
here than in any other group.
95. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+. Urban, Almost precisely as described for
whole college level above (Group 94).
96. Age 21-25. Educ, level 13+. Protest., active. Pattern much as described
for whole college level (Group 94); but somewhat more restrained. Mean fre-
quency of marital intercourse down to 2.8, often because of doubts as to pro-
priety of more frequent sexual relations even with wife. All other socio-sexual
contacts, both heterosexual and homosexual, very minor. Masturbation, how-
ever, in 60% for whom it provides 5% of outlet.
97. Age 21-25. Educ. level 13+* Protest., inactive. Essentially as described for
whole college level (Group 94). Group little affected by religious background,
but restraint derived from mores of social level.
98. Age 26-30. Whole group. While still in prime of life by various criteria,
group has aged sexually ; mean total outlet no higher than that of average younger
adolescent boy (3.3 per week) — a drop of about 1 .5 per week from rate of married
teen-age males. Marital intercourse supplies 95% of total outlet and all other out-
lets minor ; but considerable differences at different social levels, and description
for each group should be consulted.
99. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Grade school and high school
segments of this age a bit more active socio-sexually than college segment
(Group 106). Mean total outlet 3.5 per week. 96% of total outlet from marital
intercourse, mean average frequencies 3.0, but rates of 7, 14, and more not in-
frequent. Extra-marital intercourse in more than but frequency reduced, of
these contacts with prostitutes. Number of companions may be high. Mastur-
bation in but rates low ; all other outlets definitely ininor. Group uninhibited in
simple intercourse, often inhibited on nudity, pre-coital petting, oral eroticism,
etc.
Table 153. Clinical Tables (continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 26-30
OUTLET
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 0-8
100. Urban
Total
148
99
20.0
3.4
2.6
—
—
—
Mast.
148
23
2.0
0.3
0.1
20
5.5
0.7
Emiss.
148
50
2 0
0.3
0 1
50
7.3
1.0
Interc.
148
99
15.0
2.9
2.4
100
88.0
96.0
Extra.
148
35
5.0
0.7
0.1
60
15.7
9.7
Prost.
148
18
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
4.4
1.4
Homo.
148
7
0.5
0.3
0.1
5
1.8
0.8
101. Rural
Total
117
100
25.0
3.3
2.1
_
_
Mast.
117
24
3.5
0.5
0.1
45
9.3
1.0
Emiss.
117
42
1 0
0.2
0.1
20
3.9
1.0
Interc.
117
100
24.0
2.9
1.8
100
91.0
96.5
Extra.
117
30
3.5
0.5
0.2
50
11.6
4.0
Prost.
117
14
1.0
0.3
0.1
30
6.5
0.9
Homo
117
4
0.5
0.3
0.3
5
4.9
4.0
102. Protest., inactive
Total
166
100
23.0
3.4
2.4
Mast.
166
27
2.5
0.3
0.1
45
6.7
0.8
Emiss.
166
51
2.0
0.2
0.1
40
5.8
1.0
Interc.
166
100
20.0
2.9
2.1
100
88.4
96.0
Extra.
166
39
4 0
0.7
0.3
60
15.0
9.1
Prost.
166
19
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.7
1.0
Homo.
166
4
0.5
0.2
0.1
5
3.4
2.0
Educ. level 9-12
103. Whole group
Total
135
100
20.0
3.6
2.5
Mast.
135
37
3.0
0 5
0.1
60
11.8
4.3
Emiss.
135
56
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.4
1.8
Interc.
135
100
15.0
2.9
2.1
100
85.4
94.5
Extra.
135
44
5.0
0.7
0.1
60
12.4
5.0
Prost. 1
135
20
2.0
0.3
0.1
30
6.5
0.8
Homo.
135
8
1.0
0.4
0.3
15
6.9
4.0
104. Urban
Total
81
100
17.0
3.3
2.6
Mast.
81
36
3.0
0.5
0.2
60
13.6
5.0
Emiss.
81
57
! 1.0
0.2
0.1
20
4.6
1.6
Interc.
81
100
7.5
2.6
2.1
100
84.0
93.6
Extra.
81
48
5.0
0.9
0.2
60
1 15.1
7.5
Prost.
81
21
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
8.2
0.8
Homo.
81
11
1.0
0.3
0.1
15
6.6
3.0
105. Protest., inactive
Total
77
100
17.0
3.3
2.5
Mast.
77
36
2.0
0.4
0.1
60
11.5
3.0
Emiss.
77
60
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
5.5
1.2
Interc.
77
100
14.0
2,7
1.9
100
85.3
95.1
Extra.
77
51
2.0
0.5
0.1
60
12.0
3.0
Prost.
77
21
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
8.5
0.8
Homo.
77
8
1.0
0.5
0.4
15
9.3
4.3
Educ. level 13+
Total
532
100
22.0
3.2
2.6
106. Whole group
Mast.
532
66
3.5
0 4
0.2
90
13.7
4.9
Emiss.
532
73
3.0
0.2
0.1
65
6.9
2.1
Interc.
532
99
20.0
2.6
2.1
100
83.4
91.1
Extra.
532
22
3.5
0.4
0.1
70
8.9
1.2
Prost.
532
6
0.5
0.1
0.1
10
2.6
0.7
Homo.
532
3
2.5
1.2
1.3
50
25.3
15.0
716
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
717
MARRIED WHITE MALES
100. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Almost exactly as described for total
grade school level of this age (Group 99).
101. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Almost exactly as described for total
grade school group of this age (Group 99). Not particularly distinct from urban
males (Group 100), although this rural group at earlier age levels is a bit less
active sexually. Extra-marital intercourse not so frequent.
102. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Almost precisely as de-
scribed for whole grade school level of this age (Group 99).
103. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Most active of all social levels
in this age period. Mean total outlet 3.6 per week, but frequencies of marital
intercourse of 7, 10, or more in 10%. Relative lack of restraint in group further
shown by nearly having extra-marital intercourse in this period, half of these
with prostitutes. Nevertheless, marital intercourse accounts for 95% of total out-
let, all other outlets definitely minor except extra-marital intercourse. Over still
with masturbation. Group closer to college level in its acceptance of nudity, pre-
coital petting, and mouth-genital eroticism, but closer to grade school level in its
acceptance of frequent marital intercourse and of extra-marital intercourse.
104. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Almost precisely as described for
whole high school level at this age (Group 103). All differences minor.
105. Age 26-30. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Group almost exactly as
described for whole high school level (Group 103). 95% of total outlet coming
from marital intercourse, over having extra-marital intercourse, 21% of group
having some intercourse with prostitutes, but outlets from this and all other
sources minor.
106. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. Sexually less active than males
of other educational levels at this age, mean total outlet 3.2. Only 91% of outlet
from marital intercourse, with mean frequency of 2.6. Long period of pre-marital
restraint reflected in restraint on marital intercourse in this group. See younger
age group of same college level (Group 94). % of males masturbating, drawing
5% of outlet from that source. Extra-marital intercourse in but exceedingly in-
frequent and usually with only 1 or 2 partners. Very few married males in this
group with homosexual experience at this age.
Table 153 . Clinical Tables (continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
FREQ. PER WEEK
1 % OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID.
OF
cases
AGE: 26-30
OUTLET
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 13+
107. Urban
Total
561
100
22.0
3.4
2.7
—
—
Mast.
516
68
: 3.0
0.4
0.2
90
13.6
5.3
Emiss.
561
72
I 3.0
0.2
0.1
65
6.3
2.0
Interc.
561
99
20.0
2.8
2.2
100
83.3
90.8
Extra.
561
25
‘ 3.5
0.4
0.1
70
9.1
1 .0
Prost.
516
6
1.5
0.2
0.1
10
2.8
0.8
Homo.
516
2
2.5
1.2
1.3
50
27.8
20.0
108. Rural
Total
86
100
9.0
3.0
2.4
Mast.
86
57
2.0
0.4
0.2
75
15.3
4.1
Emiss.
86
73
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
9.8
2.3
Interc.
86
100
9.0
2.5
1.9
100
83.3
95.0
Extra.
86
9
1.0
1.3
0.4
.10
6.0
5.0
109. Protest., inactive
Total
346
100
22.0
3.5
2.8
Mast.
346
71
3.0
0.5
0.2
80
13 6
7.1
Emiss.
346
72
1.5
0.2
0.1
60
7 0
2.4
Interc.
346
100
20.0
2.8
2.1
100
82.5
88.6
Extra.
346
26
3.5
0.4
0.1
70
9.4
1.8
Prost.
346
7
0.5
0.2
0.1
10
3.2
0.8
Homo.
346
3
2.0
0.7
0.1
5
16.6
1.0
AGE: 31-35
110. Whole group
Total
569
100
21.0
2.7
2.1
Mast.
569
45
4.0
0.4
0 1
95
12 4
3.9
Emiss.
569
61
3.0
0.2
0.1
90
7.2
1.7
Interc.
569
100
20.0
2.2
1.8
100
85.1
95.0
Extra.
569
29
4.0
0.6
0.2
75
15.0
8,0
Prost.
569
11
1.5
0.2
0.1
40
5.4
0.9
Homo.
569
4
2.0
0.5
0.1
30
10.5
2.5
Educ. level 0-8
111. Whole group
Total
186
100
16.0
2.6
1.9
Mast.
186
19
1.0
0.2
0.1
35
5.7
O.S
Emiss.
186
40
2.0
0.2
0.1
65
6.2
0.9
Interc.
186
100
15.0
2.3
1.7
100
90.5
96.4
Extra.
186
32
3.5
0.6
0.3
70
15.3
10.6
Prost.
186
16
1.0
0.2
0.1
25
5.8
1 .0
Homo.
186
4
Scant
0.1
0.1
5
2.1
0.9
112. Urban
Total
109
100
19.0
3.0
2.3
Mast.
109
17
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
2.2
0.7
Emiss.
109
49
2.0
0.2
0.1
65
7.5
0.9
Interc.
109
100
17.0
2.7
2.2
100
89.9
96.2
Extra.
109
37
1.0
0.3
0.1
50
13.0
8.8
Prost.
109
20
0.5
0.2
0.1
15
5.3
1 .0
Homo.
109
4
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
2.0
0.8
113. Rural
Total
93
100
16.0
2.8
1.7
Mast.
93
16
1.0
0.4
0.1
20
9.5
3.0
Emiss,
93
32
1.0
0.2
0.1
15
3.3
0.9
Interc.
93
100
14.0
2.4
1.6
100
92.1
96.7
Extra.
93
23
3.5
0.8
0.4
50
19.7
20.0
Prost.
93
9
1.0
0.5
0.3
10
5.9
3.0
■ — — —
Homo.
93
4
Scant
0.1
0.1
5
2.2
3.0
718
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
719
married white males
107. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13 +. Urban. A bit more active than corresponding
rural group of this level (Group 108). Mean total outlet of 3.4, Otherwise almost
exactly as described for whole college level at this age (Group 106).
108. Age 2^30. Educ. level 13 +. Rural. Slightly less active than average for
whole college level of this age (Group 106), consequently a bit more distinct from
urban population (Group 107). Dra.ws more of its outlet (95%) from marital in-
tercourse and less from masturbation and extra-marital intercourse, thus ap-
proaching lower educational levels more than urban college segment.
109. Age 26-30. Educ. level 13 +. Protest., inactive. Slightly more active than
any other segment of college level at this age (Group 106X as far as available
data go. A mean total outlet of 3.5, with only 89% of that outlet from marital
intercourse. Somewhat higher incidence (71%) and higher frequency of mastur-
bation, and 26% with experience in extra-marital intercourse.
110. ' Age 31-35. Whole group. Males in “prime of life,” but with mean total
outlet averaging only 2.7 per week, which is nearly 20% below mean for boys
who have just turned adolescent. 95% of outlet drawn from marital intercourse.
29% of males with extra-marital intercourse which accounts for 8% of total out-
let. All other outlets minor except masturbation in college level.
111. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Grade school level of married
males at this age definitely slowing up sexually, mean total outlet only 2.6, high
frequencies of marital intercourse no longer common. This a product of poorer
physical condition of many males at this level, and not of sexual maladjustment.
96% of total outlet from marital intercourse, figure increasing for group in later
age periods. Extra-marital intercourse still in accounting for 1 1% of their out-
let, of these having contacts with prostitutes. Masturbation taboo, definitely
rare; less than with nocturnal emissions and that outlet minor. Homosexual
fairly common at younger ages in this group, now reduced to low incidence and
scant frequencies.
112. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. A bit more active than average for
whole grade school level at this age (Group 111), with a slightly higher percent-
age having extra-marital intercourse. Otherwise as described for whole group
(Group 111).
113. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Very close to pattern described for
whole grade school level (Group 111), with somewhat lower incidences in mas-
turbation, nocturnal emissions, extra-marital intercourse, and contacts with
prostitutes. Marital intercourse much the most important aspect of sex life of
this group, constituting 97% of total outlet.
Table 153. Clinical Tables {continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
V
AGE: 31-35
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 0-8
114. Protest., inactive
Total
119
100
16.0
2.6
2.0
—
—
—
Mast.
119
25
1.0
0.3
0.1
35
6.3
0.8
Emiss.
119
45
1.5
0.2
0.1
35
5.6
0.8
Interc.
119
100
14.0
2 2
1 8
100
89.4
96.3
Extra.
119
37
2.5
0.5
0.3
70
15 0
10.4
Prost.
119
19
1.0
0.2
0.1
25
5.8
0.9
Homo.
119
3
Scant
0.1
0.1
5
1.8
2.0
Educ. level 9-12
115. Whole group
Total
82
100
20.0
3.4
2.5
—
—
—
Mast.
82
37
2.0
0.4
0.1
35
10.6
4.3
Emiss.
82
56
1.0
0.2
0.1
40
6.3
1.6
Interc.
82
100
15.0
2.8
2.1
100
86.1
95.2
Extra.
82
37
2.0
0.5
0 2
50
14.4
4.6
Prost.
82
17
0.5
0.2
0.1
30
5.9
0.8
Homo.
82
6
1.0
0.8
0.7
20
13.5
15.0
116. Urban
Total
58
100
7.0
3.0
2.4
__
„
Mast.
58
40
2.0
0.4
0.1
30
9.2
2.3
Emiss.
58
52
1.0
0.2
0 1
35
6.2
1.4
Interc.
58
100
7.0
2.5
2.1
100
85.3
94.6
Extra.
58
36
2.0
0.6
0.2
50
17.5
10 0
Prost.
58
16
0.5
0.3
0.1
30
8.8
1 0
Homo.
58
7
1.0
0.7
0.8
20
14.9
17.5
117. Protest , inactive
Total
54
100
14.0
3.2
2.6
_
_
Mast.
54
32
1.0
0.3
0.2
30
11.8
7.5
Emiss.
54
65
1.0
0.2
0.1
40
5.9
1.0
Interc.
54
100
14.0
2.7
2.0
100
86.7
95.6
Extra.
54
35
1.5
0.4
0.2
35
12.6
4.0
Prost.
54
17
0.5
0 2
0.1
30
8.6
0.8
Homo.
54
' 6
1.0
1.0
1.0
25
21.3
25.0
Educ. level 13+
118. Whole group
Total
301
100
18.0
2.7
2.2
—
Mast.
301
64
4.0
0.4
0.1
95
14.0
4.8
Emiss.
301
75
3.0
0.2
0.1
75
7.7
2.3
Interc.
301
99
16.0
2.1
1.7
100
81.4
90.5
Extra.
301
25
3.5
0.6
0.3
70
15.0
7.8
Prost.
301
7
0.5
0.2
0.1
15
4.5
0.9
Homo.
301
3
2.0
0.7
0.1
25
16.3
3.0
119. Urban
Total
438
100
20,0
3.0
2.3
Mast.
402
67
5.0
0.4
0.1
95
13.0
4.5
Emiss.
438
69
3.0
0.2
0.1
75
7.6
2.4
Interc.
438
100
18.0
2.4
1.9
100
81.4
90.0
Extra.
438
34
4.5
0.5
0.2
70
15.6
8.1
Prost.
402
8
0.5
0.2
0.1
15
4.7
0.9
Homo.
402
2
2.5
0.9
0.3
25
20.5
5.0
120. Protest., active
Total
109
100
6.0
2.3
2.2
Mast.
109
60
3.5
0.4
0.1
90
16.0
4.L
Emiss.
109
79
1.0
0.2
0.1
55
10.5
4.0
Interc.
109
98
5.5
1.9
1.8
100
82.1
91.3
Extra.
109
13
Scant
0.3
0.1
10
5.5
0.9
720
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
721
married white males
114. Age 31—35. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Very closely matches urban
section of whole grade school level, as described above (Group 112).
115. Age 31-35. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Definitely more active than
either grade school or college level at this age, with mean total outlet 3.4. 90%
of total outlet from marital intercourse, of males with some masturbation, 3^^
with extra-marital intercourse (3^^ of these with prostitutes), and with some
nocturnal emissions; but all of these other outlets very minor. Wives at this
level fairly responsive and sexual adjustments with them fairly good; but extra-
marital intercourse may cause some diflBculty.
116. Age 31-35. Educ. level 9-12. Urban. Almost exactly as described for
whole high school level (Group 115).
117. Age 31-35. Educ. level 9-12. Protest., inactive. Very closely matching de-
scription given for whole high school level (Group 115).
118. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. College males still reflect re-
straint of pre-marital years, even at this age in marriage. Mean total outlet only
2.7 per week, only 91% of that from marital intercourse. For % of males, mastur-
bation supplies 5% of outlet and 3^^ draw 8% from extra-marital intercourse. This
extra-marital intercourse, very little of which is had with prostitutes, gradually
becoming more common, in incidence and in frequency, as these college level
males grow older. Correspondingly, percentage of outlet from marital intercourse
gradually decreasing. On both of these items group is quite opposite to lower
level groups. Sexual problems concern unresponsiveness of wives and, increas-
ingly with advancing age, problems arise from extra-marital intercourse.
119. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13+. Urban. Slightly more active group of mar-
ried males of college level (Group 118), with drawing 8% of their outlet from
extra-marital intercourse and % drawing 5% from masturbation. All other outlets
except marital intercourse minor.
120. Age 31-35. Educ. level 13+. Protest., active. Most restrained segment of
college group of married males (Group 118) on which data are available. Total
outlet only 2.3 per week, marital intercourse averaging less than 2 per week,
never more than 5.5 in most extreme case. Group definitely restrained and al-
lowing significance of sex in marriage to become gradually less. Both marital
and extra-marital intercourse less frequent than in remainder of college group
at this age (Group 118). Many individuals in group not well satisfied with this
sexual arrangement, although they are not always conscious of that.
Table 153. Clinical Tables ( continued )
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
CASES
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE; 31-35
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 134-
121. Protest, inactive
Total
270
100
20.0
3.1
2.4
—
—
—
Mast
270
71
5.0
0.4
0.2
80
14,3
6.6
Emjss.
270
72
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
6.2
2.0
Interc.
270
100
18.0
2.4
1.9
100
79.6
87.9
Extra.
270
35
3.5
0.6
0.3
70
17.7
10.0
Prost.
270
8
0.5
0.2
0.1
15
5.5
3.0
Homo.
270
5
2.5
0.6
0.1
20
15.5
2.0
AGE: 36-40
122. Whole group
Total
390
100
22.0
2.5
1.9
Mast
390
37
3.0
0.4
0.1
100
12.4
3.7
Emiss.
390
53
2.0
0.2
0.1
55
6.8
2.2
Interc.
390
99
20.0
2.0
1.6
100
85.8
95.2
Extra.
390
29
4.0
0.7
0.2
100
18.8
9.0
Prost.
390
11
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
7.3
0.9
Homo.
390
3
1.0
0.6
0.1
20
7.6
5.0
Educ. level 0-8
123. Whole group
Total
143
100
13.0
2.3
1.7
—
—
Mast.
143
11
1.0
0.3
0.2
35
12.2
5.6
Emiss.
143
29
1.0
0.1
0.1
20
4.0
0.9
Interc.
143
99
12.0
2.0
1.6
100
90.3
96.5
Extra.
143
27
3.5
0.7
0.4
90
23.6
17.2
Prost.
143
10
0.5
0.2
0.1
20
9.1
2.5
Homo.
143
3
Scant
0.2
0.1
5
3.0
3.0
124. Urban
Total
75
100
7.0
2.5
2.2
Mast
75
8
0.5
0.3
0.2
10
18.0
0.9
Emiss.
75
33
0.5
0.2
0.1
20
5.3
1.0
Interc.
75
99
7.0
2.3
2.0
100
87.9
96.2
Extra.
75
33
3.5
0.6
0.2
90
24.7
16.3
Prost.
75
16
0.5
0.2
0.1
20
10.3
3.0
125. Rural
Total
84
100
15.0
2.5
L7
Mast
84
12
1.0
0.3
0.3
15
6.1
6.7
Emiss.
84
31
'l.O
0.2
0.1
10
2.7
0.8
Interc.
84
100 i
14.0
2.2
1.5
100
93.1
96.8
Extra.
84
19
1.5
0.6
0.5
50
22.6
' 22.5
Homo.
84
5
0.5
0.3
0.3
5
3.8
5.0
126. Protest., inactive
Total
93
100
13.0
2.5
1
1.8
Mast
93
16
1.0
0.3
0.2
■ 35
12.2
5.0
Emiss.
93
37
1.0
0.2
0.1
20
3.9
0.8
Interc.
93
99
12.0
2.1
1.6
100
89.6
96.3
Extra.
93
29
3.5
0.7
0.4
80
22.9
15.7
Prost.
93
11
0.5
0.2
0.1
20
11.3
2.0
Homo.
93
3
Scant
0.3
0.1
5
3.8
5.0
Educ. level 9-12
127. Whole group
Total
58
100
10.0
2.6
2.0
Mast
58
26
1.0
0.3
0.2
35
14.8
8.3
Emiss.
58
52
1.0
0.2
0.1
30
7.0
2.5
Interc.
58
100
10.0
2.3
1.7
100
87.7
95.4
Extra.
58
33
1,0
0.3
0.2
35
11.4
5.0
1
Prost.
58
19
0.5
0.2
0.1
30
8.7
0.9
722
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
723
married white males
121 • Age 31-35. Educ, level 13+* Protest., inactive. Pattern typical of married
males of college level (Group 118). Group definitely less inhibited than actively
religious males of same level (Group 120). Mean total outlet 3.1, only 88% from
marital intercourse, remainder supplied by masturbation (for 71% it provides
7% of outlet) and extra-marital intercourse (10% of total outlet for 35% of
males). Developing an increasing dependence upon masturbation and extra-
marital intercourse as substitute for sexual relations with wives who are unre-
sponsive or inhibited in accepting such variety of techniques as average male
at this level would like. In spite of their expressed desires, however, these males
themselves are inhibited.
122. Age 36-40. Whole group. Married males at this age on a steady decline
sexually. Mean total outlet 2.5, 95% of total from marital intercourse; mastur-
bation in but mostly at college level and quite taboo at lower levels. Nocturnal
emissions in more than 3 .^, but very minor and chiefly in high school and college
levels. Extra-marital intercourse in nearly at this age as abundant or more
abundant in college level than in lower level.
123. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Married males of grade school
level with mean total outlet 2.3. Males of this level often begin to show physical
effects of aging, with mean frequencies of marital intercourse down to 2.0 and
frequencies above 7 now rare. With advancing age, an increasing proportion of
outlet (97%) from marital intercourse (in contrast to decreasing proportion
among males of college level). Extra-marital intercourse in not more than ac-
counting for 17% of their outlet. All other outlets infrequent and of minor sig-
nificance.
124. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. Pattern much as described for whole
grade school level of this age (Group 123), but city males more often have extra-
marital intercourse (in 33%) and more often go to prostitutes (in 16%).
125. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Closely fitting description given for
whole grade school level (Group 123). Incidence of extra-marital intercourse
(19%) not as high as in city group; otherwise closer to city group than was true
among rural populations at earlier ages.
126. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Closely fitting description
given for whole grade school level at this age (Group 123).
127. Age 36-40. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Even this high school group
begins to show effects of aging; now not more active than any other social level.
95% of total sexual outlet from marital intercourse. masturbate, have extra-
marital intercourse, more than having some with prostitutes. All outlets except
marital intercourse infrequent and a minor part of total outlet.
Table 153. Clinical Tables (continued)
IvIARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
CASES
INCID
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
0 /
AGE: 36-40
OUTLET
o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 13 -f
128. Whole group
Total
189
100
22.0
2.6
2.0
—
—
—
Mast
189
5)
3.0
0 4
0.1
95
12.1
3.3
Emiss.
189
72
2 0
0.2
0 1
55
7.6
3.1
Interc.
189
99
12 0
1 9
1.6
100
81.9
90.2
Extra.
189
30
3.5
0 9
0.2
100
18.1
7 1
Prost
189
9
0.5
0.2
0.1
20
4 9
0 9
Homo
189
3
0 5
0 9
0.1
10
7.0
5.0
129. Urban
Total
281
100
22 0
2 7
2 1
_
_
Mast
281
62
4 0
0 4
0.1
95
11 0
3.0
Emiss.
281
67
2 0
0 2
0.1
55
7.0
3.0
Interc.
281
99
12.0
2.1
1.7
100
82 3
90.1
Extra.
281
37
6.0
0 7
0.2
100
19.3
7.5
Prost.
281
8
1.0
0.5
0.1
20
4.9
0.9
130. Protest., active
Total
73
100
4 5
2.0
1 9
Mast.
73
55
3.0
0.4
0 1
95
18.8
4.6
Emiss.
73
75
1.0
0.2
0 1
50
10.3
4 2
Interc.
73
99
4.0
1.6
1.6
100
81.5
89 6
Extra.
73
16
0.5
0.1
0.1
15
5.3
2.0
131. Protest., inactive
Total
187
99
22.0
2.9
2.2
Mast.
187
71
3.0
0 4
0 2
70
10.4
3 9
Emiss.
187
67
1.0
0.2
0.1
40
6.8
3.1
Interc.
187
98
12 0
2.1
1.6
100
80.0
88.3
Extra.
187
41 1
6 0
0.8
0.3
100
22.0
9.5
Prost.
187
10
1.0
0.5
0.1
20
5.5
0.9
Homo.
187
3
0.5
0.7
0.1
10
7 0
5.0
AGE: 41-45
132. Whole group
Total
272
100
15.0
2.0
1.6
_
__
Mast.
272
33
3.0
0.3
0.1 1
90
12.7
4.3
Emiss.
272
54
I.O
0.2
0.1
60
7 5
2.0
Interc.
272
99
14.0
1.6
1.3
100
85 9
95.4
Extra.
272
24
2.0
0.5
0.3
100
24 3
16.3
Prost.
272
9
0.5
0.2
0.1
35
8.0
1.0
Homo.
272
i 2
Scant
0.8
0.1
5
5.5
0.9
Educ. level 0-8
!
133 Whole group
Total
100
100
9.5
1.9
1.4
Mast.
100
9
1.0
0.3
0 2
10
5.2
5.0
Emiss.
100
31
1.0
0.1
0 1
20
4.4
0.9
Interc.
100
99
9 0
1.7
1.2
100
90.8
96.7
Extra.
lOU
21
2.0
0 6
0.4
100
32.2
19.0
Prost.
100
11
0.5
0.3
0.2
20
12.3
5.0
Homo.
100
3
0.1
0.1
0.1
Scant
1.3
1.0
134. Rural
Total
52
100
9.5
2.1
1.4
Mast.
52
12
1 0
0.4
0.4
10
7.6
7.5
Emiss.
52
27
0 5
0.2
0.1
10
3.0
0.9
Interc.
52
ICO
9 0
2 1
1.3
100
93.7
97.0
Extra.
52
12
1.0
0 6
0 6
50
26 3
27.5
Prost
52
4
Scant
0.2
0 3
Scant
1.8
3.0
Homo.
1
4
Scant
0 1
0.1
Scant
1.8
3.0
724
MARRIED WHITE MALES
128. Age 36-40. Edoc. level 13+. Whole group. Married males of this college
level usually in fair condition physically and sexually capable enough. Not ma-
terially different from college level in preceding 5-year period (Group 118).
Whole group shows effect of pre-marital restraint which is characteristic of this
level. 90% of total outlet from marital intercourse. 59% masturbate, usually with
low frequencies; 30% have extra-marital intercourse, usually not with prosti-
tutes; other outlets of minor significance. Problems of sexual adjustment in mar-
riage not as frequent as at an earlier age because male rates have dropped, and
female has lost some of previous inhibitions and is now near prime of her re-
sponsiveness. Occasionally this erotic development of female comes too late to
correct a maladjustment that developed earlier in the marriage; and male’s ex-
tra-marital intercourse may become a source of difficulty.
129. Age 36-40. Educ. level 13+. Urban. Very well described by paragraph
above for whole college level (Group 128).
130. Age 36-40. Educ. level 13+. Protest, active. Most restrained segment of
college level, as far as data are available. General pattern that of whole level
(Group 128), but mean total outlet down to 2.0 per week. Mean frequency of
marital intercourse 1.6, in no individual more than 4 per week, supplying only
90% of total sexual outlet. More than 3^^ of males masturbate but infrequently, %
have emissions but infrequently. Extra-marital intercourse in only 16%, supply-
ing only 2% of outlet, but even then a likely source of conflict. Marked contrast
to inactive Protestants of same level (Group 131). Clinician may well examine
possibility that maladjusted individual from this group is in sexual conflict, even
when he asserts otherwise.
131. Age 36-40. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Most active segment of
college level at this age. General pattern quite like that described for whole col-
lege level (Group 128), but mean total outlet 2.9 per week, marital intercourse 2.1
per week, with maximum frequencies still up to 12 per week. 88% of outlet from
marital intercourse. 41% with extra-marital intercourse, which supplies 10% of
outlet, prostitutes in only 3^^ of these cases. Masturbation in nearly but not fre-
quent.
132. Age 41-45. Whole group. Sexual activity continues to drop, mean total
outlet averaging only 2.0 by this age. 95% of total outlet from marital intercourse,
mean frequency 1.6, but some individuals still averaging 7, 10, or more per
week. Masturbation still in chiefly, however, at college level ; frequencies low.
Nocturnal emissions in but of no great significance. Extra-marital intercourse
in y, other outlets very minor.
133. Age 41-45. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Males of this level in early
forties so aftected by age that their rates for first time are now lower than rates
of college level. Early aging probably a product of poor nutrition, hard work, or
original physical or mental incapacity. Marital intercourse supplies 97% of out-
let, but mean frequencies down to 1.7, and for y of population not more often
than 1.2 per week. Very few individuals with frequencies to 7 per week. Extra-
marital intercourse in only 21%, all other outlets very minor. Problems of sexual
adjustment less significant because of lowered interest of these males in sexual
activity, and particularly because of decrease in frequency of extra-marital in-
tercourse.
134. Age 41-45. Educ. level 0-8. Rural. Married males of rural group drawing
97% of total outlet from marital intercourse, mean frequency 2.1 per week,
median 1.3. Extra-marital intercourse in only 12%, all other outlets very minor.
725
Table 153. Clinical Tables {continued)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
FREQ, PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
OF
CASES
AGE; 41-^5
OUTLET
/o
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 0-8
135. Protest., inactive
Total
60
100
9.5
1.9
1.3
—
—
Mast.
60
13
0.5
0.2
0.2
10
4.9
3.0
Emiss
60
42
1.0
0.2
0.1
20
4.5
0.9
Interc.
60
98
9.0
1.8
1.0
100
87.8
96.5
Extra.
60
27
2.0
0.6
0.5
100
36.4
27.5
Prost
60
12
0.5
0.3
0.2
20
17.3
7.5
Homo.
60
3
Scant
0.1
0.1
Scant
1.8
3.0
Educ. level 13 -f
136. Whole group
Total
138
100
9.5
2.0
1.7
—
««
Mast.
138
55
3.0
0.3
0.1
90
13.2
4.3
Emiss.
138
73
1.0
0.2
0.1
45
7.5
2.5
Intcrc.
138
99
8.0
1.5
1.3
100
82.0
91.0
Extra.
138
24
2.0
0.5
0.2
85
21.4
15.0
Prost.
138
5
0.5
0.1
0.1
5
1.9
0.8
137. Urban
Total
112
100
9.5
2.1
1.8
Mast.
112
55
3.0
0.4
0.1
90
13.0
4.4
Emiss.
112
74
1.0
0.2
0.1
45
7.0
2.4
Interc.
112
99
8.0
1.6
1 3
100
82.1
91.2
Extra.
112
23
2.0
0.6
0.3
85
23.0
12.5
Prost.
112
6
0.5
0.1
0.1
5
1.9
0.8
Homo.
112
3
1
Scant
1.5
0.1
Scant
9.7
1.0
138. Protest., inactive
Total
83
100
9.5
2.1
1.7
Mast.
83
60
2.0
0.3
0.1
55
11.0
5.8
Emiss.
83
72
1 0
0.1
0.1
30
6.4
2.0
Interc.
83
100
8.0
1.5
1.3
100
80.0
87.2
Extra.
83
31
2.0
0.6
0.4
85
25.9
22.5
Prost.
83
7
0.5
0.1
0.1
1 5
2.2
0.9
Homo.
83
4
Scant
1.5
0.1
Scant
9.7
1.0
AGE: 46-50
139. Whole group
Total
175
1 99
14.0
1.8
1.2
Mast.
175
31
1,5
0.3
0.1
70
14.9
6.8
Emiss.
175
48
1.0
0.2
0.1
80
9.4
2.2
Interc.
175
97
14.0
1.5
0.9
100
83.7
95.8
Extra.
175
24
2.5
0.7
0.4
95
29.1
18.8
Prost.
175
6
0.5
0.3
0.2
10
12.3
5.6
Homo.
175
2
Scant
1.5
0.1
5
12.2
5.0
Educ. level 0-8
140. Whole group
Total
70
97
14.0
1.9
1.2
___
Mast.
70
7
1.0
0.4
0.1
10
6.5
1.0
Emiss.
70
29
1.0
0.2
0.1
20
5.1
1.0
Interc.
70
97
14.0
1.7
0.9
100
90.1
96.8
Extra.
70 •
19
1.5
0.6
0.4
80
33.6
35.0
Prost
70
9
0.5
0.3
0.3
10
17.2
6.3
Educ. level 13+
141. Whole group
Total
81
100
7.5
1.8
1.3
—
Mast
81
57
1.5
0.3
0.1
70
14.5
6.9
Emiss.
81
68
1.0
0.1
0.1
50
9.2
2.5
Interc.
81
98
5.5
1.3
0-9
100
78.2
92.5
Extra.
81
27
2.5
0.9
0.6
95
30.3
22.5
726
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
121
MARRIED WHITE MALES
135. Age 41-45. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Pattern well covered by
description for whole grade school level at this age (Group 133).
136. Age 41-45. Educ, level 13+- Whole group. Married males of college level
usually in good condition physically at this age, although mean total outlet has
continued to drop since late teens, now down to 2.0. Marital intercourse 91%
of total outlet, extra-marital intercourse in 34 group accounting for 15% of
their outlet. Masturbation still in more than nocturnal emissions in but
these and other outlets of minor significance. Group offers no special sexual
problems other than those which are the product of general restraint character-
istic of college group throughout their histories.
137. Age 41-45. Educ. level 13+. Urban. Pattern almost exactly as described
in whole college level (Group 136).
138.. Age 41-45. Educ. level 13+. Protest., inactive. Very close to pattern de-
scribed for whole college level (Group 136). Marital intercourse accounting for
only 87% of total outlet. Somewhat higher incidence (31%) of extra-marital in-
tercourse, accounting for 23% of outlet. Masturbation in 60%, accounting for
6% of their outlet. Other sexual activities less significant.
139. Age 46-50. Whole group. General level of sexual activity continues to de-
cline with age. In these late forties, mean total outlet is 1.8 per week, about 96%
of that from marital intercourse, of males with extra-marital intercourse which
provides 19% of their outlet, masturbation in 3^^, other outlets minor. First cases
of permanent impotence from age, although healthy males may not expect im-
potence for another 10 or 20 years, if ever. Some impotence now appearing is
product of inhibition or loss of interest in sexual activity. Some problems of
marital adjustment now develop because of waning interest in sexual activity,
although not generally so for another 10 years for most males.
140. Age 46-50. Educ. level 0-8. Wliole group. Males of grade school level de-
rive higher proportion of total outlet from marital intercourse, with incidence of
extra-marital intercourse (19%) definitely lower than in corresponding college
level (Group 141). Aging problems more acute in this lower level at this age,
than in college level (see Group 139).
141. Age 46-50. Educ. level 13+. Whole group. General pattern as described
for all married males of this age (Group 139). Aging problems less acute than
with lower social levels. Intercourse accounting for only 93% of outlet, extra-
marital intercourse increasing, with incidence now 27%. Masturbation increasing,
now in 57%, accounting for 7% of outlet. Emissions still in 68%, accounting for
only 3% of outlet.
Table 153. Clinical Tables {conclude d)
MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
1 FREQ. PER WEEK
1 % OF TOTAL OUTLET
INCID
CASES
AGE: 46-50
OUTLET
0/
/ o
Range
Mean
Med
Range
Mean
Med.
Educ. level 13-}-
142. Urban
Total
64
100
7.5
2 0
1.5
—
—
—
Mast.
64
58
1 5
0 3
0.1
70
15.4
7.5
Emiss.
64
69
1 0
0.2
0.1
45
7.9
3 0
Interc.
64
97
5 5
1.4
1.0
100
79.3
91.9
Extra.
64
27
2.5
1 0
0 5
95
29.0
15.0
Frost.
64
3
0 5
0 3
0.4
5
5.5
7.5
AGE: 51-55
143. Whole group
Total
109
98
7 0
1 6
1.0
__
_
Mast.
109
26
1 5
0 4
0 1
50
18.2
11.3
Emiss
109
44
1 0
0.2
0.1
50
7.9
0.9
Interc.
109
97
6.0
1.2
0 8
100
83.1
96.1
Extra.
109
22
2 0
0.8
0.5
90
33.3.
32.5
Frost.
109
7
0 5
0 2
0.2
25
15.2
3.0
Homo.
109
2
Scant
0 7
0 8
5
15.5
17.5
Educ. level 0-8
144. Whole group
Total
50
96
6.0
1.4
0.9
Mast.
50
6
Scant
0.3
0.1
Scant
3 0
1 0
Emiss.
50
20
1.0
0.2
0 1
50
12.0
0 9
Interc.
1 50
96
6 0
1 2
0.7
100
88.3
97.0
Extra.
50
20
1 5
0 5
0.3
90
32.5
22.5
Frost.
50
10
0.5
0.3
0.3
25
23.5
5.0
AGE: 56-60
145. Whole group
Total
67
99
4.5
1.1
0.8
Mast.
67
19
0.5
0 2
0.1
60
20.9
7.8
Emiss.
67
28
0,5
0.1
0 1
60
13.8
1 .0
Interc
67
94
3.0
0.9
0.7
100
81 1
96 3
Extra.
67
25
2.0
0.6
0.4
100
37,0
15.0
Frost.
67
8
0.5
0.3
0.1
5
19.5
1.0
728
CLINICAL tables: MARRIED
729
MARRIED WHITE MALES
142. Age 46-50. Educ. level 13+* Urban. Very close to pattern described for
whole college level at this age (Group 141).
143. Age 51-55. Whole group. Steady decline in sexual activity continues, as it
has since late teens. Mean total outlet now 1.6, 2% of total population no longer
experiences orgasm. Maximum frequencies for any male 7 per week, although
median frequencies ar^e only 1 per week. Nearly all total outlet still from marital
intercourse, more true of lower levels, less true of upper levels. Masturbation
practically out for lower educational level, on increase for upper level. Extra-
marital intercourse steadily increasing for upper level. Among males of college
level, marital intercourse may not account for more than 62% of total outlet at
this age. Decline of sexual interest between spouses only occasionally causing
serious trouble at this age. Impotence slightly more frequent but still in not more
than 9% of population.
144. Age 51-55. Educ. level 0-8. Wliole group. Some differences from whole
group described above (Group 143). Mean total outlet (1.4) lower. Percentage
derived from marital intercourse steadily increasing, now totals 97%. Only 20%
having extra-marital intercourse, from which they derive 23% of outlet. Mastur-
bation exceedingly scant at this lower level, other outlets not important. 4% of
group inactive, no longer experiencing orgasm.
145. Age 56-60. Whole group. The aging process leads to a mean frequency of
only 1 . 1 per week for this group. The most extreme male experiences orgasm only
4.5 per week. Nearly all outlet of lower educational level derived from marital
intercourse, not % of it so derived by college level. Extra-marital intercourse in-
frequent at lower level, more frequent at upper level. Masturbation and noc-
turnal emissions account for very little of lower level’s outlet, may account for
as much as 22% of outlet of college level at this age. Impotence now in 18%.
Table 154. Clinical Tables
PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
OF
OUTLET
CASES
: INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE ; 21-25
1 %
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med.
146. Whole group
Total i
119
98
23.0
3.8
2.0
Mast.
119
45
3.0
0.6
0.3
100
26.3
17.5
Emiss.
119
62
2.0
0.3
0.1
50
10.3
2.7
Interc.
150
96
28.0
3.3
1.6
100
79.5
95.1
Comp.
119
96
20.0
2.9
1.2
100
68.2
85.4
Prost.
119
47
1.5
0.3
0.1
100
18.4
2.7
Homo.
.119
27
4.0
1.1
0.3
85
18.9
4.6
Educ, level 0-8
147. Whole group
Total
93
96
23.0
3.7
1.8
—
—
—
Mast.
93
34
2.0
0.5
0.3
100
22.2
10.8
Emiss.
93
50
2.0
0.3
0.2
50
10.1
4.8
Interc.
93
94
28.0
3.4
1.5
100
86.5
95.6
Comp.
93
88
20.0
3.3
1.2
100
74.0
89.2
Prost.
93
46
1.0
0.4
0.3
100
31.7
17.5
Homo.
93
14
1.0
0.5
0.2
15
9.7
5.0
148. Protest., inactive
Total
69
97
18.0
3.4
1.7
'
Mast.
69
36
2.0
0.6
0.3
100
26.9
18.3
Emiss.
69
48
2.0
0.3
0.2
40
9.4
4.4
Interc.
69
94
20.0
3.2
1.5
100
86.4
95.7
Comp.
69
87
18.0
3.1
1.2
100
73.2
88.2
Prost.
69
51
1.0
0.4
0.3
100
32.4
20.0
Homo.
69
12
1.0
0.3
0.2
10
4.6
4.0
Educ. level 9-12
149. Whole group
Total
57
100
22.0
4.2
2.3
—
—
—
Mast.
57
56
3.0
0.6
0.2
65
19.1
11.3
Emiss.
57
72
1.0
0.2
0.1
50
10.7
1.9
Interc.
56
91
20.0
3.4
1.8
100
77.6 1
93.8
Comp.
57
91
20.0
3.3
1.7
100
73.9 1
90.8
Prost.
57
46
2.0
0.2
0.1
30
6.7 1
0.8
Homo.
57
39
3.5
1.4
0.6
80
25.8
12.5
AGE; 26-30
150. Whole group
Total
182
97
23.0
3.0
1.8
—
Mast.
182
44
4.0
0.6
0.3
100
24.0
12.5
Emiss.
182
64
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
12.6
3.7
i
Interc.
192
95
20.0
2.4
1.3
100
78.6
94.0
Comp.
182
90
20.0
2.4
1.1
100
68.5
81.7
Prost.
182
56
2.0
0.3
0.1
100
22.3
6.4
i
Homo.
182
18
4.0
0.9
0.3
85
18.7
6.9
Educ. level 0-8
151. Whole group
Total
108
95
17.0
2.9
1.6
—
Mast.
108
35
2.0
0.5
0.2
100
24.4
13.8
Emiss.
108
58
2.0
0.3
0.1
50
10.6
4.6
Interc.
117 1
94
17.0
2.3
1.0
100
83.3
95.4
Comp.
108
86
17.0
2.4 :
0.9
100
68.3
81.0
Prost.
108 .
63
1.5
0.4
0.3
100
29.6
14.6
Homo.
108
14
3.0
0.7
0.2
—
—
—
152. Urban
f Total
68
99
17.0
3.2
1.7
Mast.
68
38
1.5
' 0.4
0.2
j 60
19.4
11.3
Emiss.
68
62
2.0
0.3
0.1
50
10.0
3.6
Interc.
75
97
17.0
2.6
1.2
100
82.9
95.4
Comp.
68
93
17.0
2.6
1.0
100
68.2
80.0
Prost.
68
69
1.5
0.4
0.3
100
27.5
15.0
Homo.
68
19
3.0
0.7
0.2
25
11.3
6.3
730
Table 154 . Clinical Tables
PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
146. Age 21 - 25 . Whole group. Males who have been previously married but
who no longer live with wives, have patterns closer to those of married males than
to those of single males. 96% of whole population continues heterosexual coitus,
3^^ having some with prostitutes, but most frequently with other females. Mastur-
bation in less than 3^, but accounting for 18% of their outlet. Nocturnal emissions
in nearly Homosexual activities much more frequent than among married
males, less frequent than among some groups of single males, now in 27% ac-
counting for 5% of outlet. Often present personality problems which not infre-
quently involve sexual maladjustments. Many come from lower educational
levels where there is considerable irresponsibility, incapacity, unwillingness or
ineffectiveness in securing and holding jobs, failure to support wives, cruelty, and
problems arising from drinking. While married, were promiscuous in extra-
marital relations and had a fair amount of homosexual activity, and these some-
times caused divorce. This, however, a personahty problem rather than a
sexual problem in origin.
147. Age 21--25. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Pattern well described in para-
graph above (Group 146). Apparently somewhat lower incidence of masturba-
tion and of homosexual. Few inhibitions on socio-sexual contacts in this group,
but more inhibitions against masturbation, nudity, petting techniques, and oral
eroticism. Promiscuous, and VD often high.
148. Age 21-25. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Pattern covered by descrip-
tions in two paragraphs above (Groups 146, 147).
149. Age 21-25. Educ. level 9-12. Whole group. Most active males of this age
group, with mean total outlet 4.2. 91% have intercourse which accounts for 94%
of their outlet, of these have some intercourse with prostitutes, which accounts
for less than 1% of outlet. 56% masturbate, so deriving 11% of their outlet, 39%
have homosexual relations which account for 13% of their outlet. In heterosexual
promiscuity and high incidence of homosexual, this group a close duplicate of
single males of same educational level and age (Group 48). Marriage a passing
episode to many of these individuals; many present basic personality problems.
Others more balanced. Clinicians will do well to make a sharp distinction be-
tween persons with these diverse backgrounds.
150. Age 26-30. Whole group. Males who have been previously married but
are no longer living with wives, have patterns closer to those of married males
than to those of single males. 95% have intercourse which provides 94% of total
outlet, nearly 60% have some of that intercourse with prostitutes; and consider-
able promiscuity for grade school and high school males of this ^oup. Mastur-
bation in 44%, accounting for 13% of their outlet, but more of this in upper edu-
cational levels, less in lower educational levels. Homosexual in 18%, accounting
for 7% of outlet. Compare younger age level of previously married males
(Group 146). A larger number of these males have made a real attempt at marital
adjustment and have encountered more serious difficulties, which in many cases
have involved sexual problems.
151. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Remarks made in paragraph
above (Group 150) applicable to grade school level of this age group. Mastur-
bation less frequently a source of outlet (in 35% of males), prostitutes providing
a larger portion of intercourse (for 63% of males); homosexual of minor sig-
nificance but in 14% of histories. Few inhibitions on socio-sexual contacts in
this group, but more against masturbation, nudity, petting techniques, and oral
eroticism.
731
CLINICAL TABLES : PREVIOUSLY MARRIED
733
PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
152. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. A somewhat more active segment of
grade school level (Group 151). Mean total outlet 3.2 with frequencies of 10, 14,
or more not uncommon, 97% with intercourse which provides 95% of total out-
let, 69% with some intercourse with prostitutes, 1 9% with homosexual outlet.
Group heterosexually almost as active as married males and homosexually more
so.
153. Age 26-30. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Almost exactly as de-
scribed above (Group 152).
154. Age 31-35. Whole group. Males who have been previously married very
little less active than married males of same age, with mean total outlet 2.0. In-
tercourse in 91%, accounting for 95% of their total outlet. 61% have some inter-
course with prostitutes, 11% have homosexual relations, 39% have masturbation
which accounts for only 15% of outlet. 5% apparently without sexual outlet,
these the individuals most likely to be disturbed and most often involved in basic
personality difficulties. Any individual among previously married males who is
having outlets much less frequently than those given here, needs especial con-
sideration.
155. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Pattern very close to that de-
scribed for whole group above (Group 154). Mean total outlet 1.8, 94% deriv-
ing 96% of outlet from intercourse, over 2^ of these having some intercourse with
prostitutes, masturbation in only of histories, 5% apparently without any sex-
ual outlet.
156. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Urban. A less restrained segment of grade
school group (Groups 154, 155). Only 1% without any sexual outlet. 97% with
some intercourse accounting for 96% of outlet, about % of these with some of
intercourse with prostitutes. Masturbation very minor source of outlet.
157. Age 31-35. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. Record very close to de-
scription given for whole grade school level (Group 155).
158. Age 36-40. Whole group. Aging effect on males who have been previously
married somewhat sharper than on married males. Mean total outlet down to 1.7,
but nearly all males (98%) with active histories. 92% of group deriving 96% of
outlet from intercourse, nearly % of these having some with prostitutes, 6% with
homosexual, masturbation in 42% accounting for 17% of total outlet.
159. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Available data do not show this
group significantly different from description given above (Group 158), except
that 70% have intercourse with prostitutes, which accounts for 30% of outlet.
Table 154. Clinical Tables {concluded)
PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
SOURCE
INCID.
FREQ. PER WEEK
% OF TOTAL OUTLET
AGE: 36-40
OUTLET
%
Range
Mean
Med.
Range
Mean
Med,
Educ. level 0-8
160. Protest, inactive
Total
62
97
16.0
1.7
1.0
—
—
—
Mast
62
44
1.0
0.4
0 2
95
25.8
15.0
Emiss.
62
48 i
0.5
0.1
0.1
100
13.9
0.9
Interc.
66
92
5.0
1.1
0.7
100
80.3
96.1
Comp.
62
76
10.0
1.4
0.5
100
65.8
87.5
Prost.
62
69
1.5
0.4
0.3
100
39.1
35.0
Homo.
62
5
Scant
1.6
0,1
10
13.8
10.0
AGE: 41-45
I
161. Whole group
Total
96
94
12.0
1 1.6
1.0
Mast
96
33
2.0
0.6
0.3
95
32 1
17.5
Emiss.
96
39
1.0
0.2
0.1
100
21.6
5.0
Interc
107
86
10.0
1.4
0.8
100
85.1
96.2
Comp.
96
69
10,0
1.2
0.6
100
62 .‘4
69.4
Prost.
96
60
1.5
0.5
0.4
100
46,9 i
47.5
Homo.
96 1
5
1.0
1.3
0.5
35
22.5
15.0
Educ. level 0-8
162. Whole group
Total
69
93
12.0
1.5
0.9
—
Mast j
69
26
1.5
0.6
0.3
95
33.3
15.0
Emiss.
69
32
0.5
0.1
0.1
100
18.1
2.0
Interc. j
71
87
10.0
1.3
0.8
100
87 0
96.5
Comp.
69
68
10.0
1.2
0.5
100
62.1
70.0
Prost.
69
68
1.5
0.5
0.4
100
49.1
48.0
Homo.
69
6
0 5
1.4
0.4
15
13.6
12.5
AGE: 46-50
163. Whole group
Total
63
94
6.0
1.4
0.8
!
! Mast.
1 63
44
2,0
0.5
0.4
100
36.6
32.5
Emiss.
63
32
1.0
0.2
0.1
100
21.3
5.8
Interc.
72
82
5.0
1.3
0.7
100
83,3
96.3
Comp.
63
67
4.5
1.2
0.5
100
63.7
77.5
Prost.
63
52
1.0
0.4
0.3
100
48.8
50.0
734
CLINICAL tables: PREVIOUSLY MARRIED
735
PREVIOUSLY MARRIED WHITE MALES
160. Age 36-40. Educ. level 0-8. Protest., inactive. The relatively scant data
available on this group do not show it significantly different from description
given above (Group 159).
161. Age 41-45. Whole group. Aging effects continue to mount; apparently
6% of group without sexual outlet. Only 86% have intercourse, which accounts
for 96% of their outlet, 60% have some of this with prostitutes, but this probably
more true of lower educational level which is chief source of present sample.
Only masturbate. Homosexual in 5%.
162. Age 41-45. Educ. level 0-8. Whole group. Scant data available on this
group do not show it significantly different from description given above (Group
161).
163. Age 46-50. Whole group. A continued decline in sexual activity evident
in this group. Mean total outlet 1.4, with 6% of males apparently inactive. Only
82% in limited sample with any intercourse, which contributes 96% of their out-
let. 52% with some intercourse with prostitutes, which contributes of their
total outlet — this a measure of their social maladjustments. Nearly of group
masturbates, so deriving 3^ of their outlet. Homosexual too minor to record on
this small sample.
APPENDIX ON SAIVIPLE SIZE
The problem involved in determining the number of cases necessary in
the present study to provide an adequate sample of any larger population,
has already been discussed in Chapter 3. The generalizations made there
have been based upon a scries of pragmatic tests of the values of calcula-
tions derived from samples of various sizes. The specific data derived from
those tests are shown in the tables presented in this Appendix.
As previously explained (Chapter 3), calculations have been made sys-
tematically for samples of 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and (where the material
is available) 600, 1000, and still larger numbers of cases. In all, 698 different
populations have been used in these tests. Each population has been
homogeneous for sex, race, marital status, age, educational level,
either the rural-urban background or the religious background of the
included individuals. The samples of various size have all been selected
by a strict randomization performed on an IBM sorter; and in each
instance the sample has been drawn directly from the total number of
histories available in each population. In no case has a larger sample been
built up by adding cases to an originally smaller sample of 50, 100, or
other size.
In the tables given here, the statistics which are shown in boldface
represent calculations which lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of the
calculations obtained from the largest sample available in that group;
except that comparisons of incidence data have been made with an allow-
ance of 2 per cent, plus or minus. The boldface figures therefore represent
results that are adequate, as judged by the results obtained from the use
of the largest sample, and within the allowed range of error. Of course,
an error of any other size might have been arbitrarily selected as a basis
for judging adequacy in these tables. See Chapter 3 (Table 2) for a sum-
mary tabulation of the number of adequate samples which are shown here
in these tables.
The eight tables which follow present the following statistics on each
of the sample populations:
Table 155: Mean frequencies per week (and the standard deviation)
on the total population in each sample
Table 156: Mean frequencies per week (and the standard deviation)
for the active population in each sample
Table 1 57 : Median frequencies per week for the total population in
each sample
736
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
737
Table 158: Median frequencies per week for the active population
in each sample
Table 159: Incidence of active cases in each sample
Table 160: Locus of the mode for the frequency distribution in each
sample
Table 161 : Height of the mode for the frequency distribution in each
sample
Table 162: Range of variation (represented as the maximum fre-
quency minus one case) in each sample
Wherever all of the medians in an entire section of any table have fallen
into a zero frequency class, they have not been shown in these tables.
In column one, in each of the following tables, these abbreviations have
been used:
S = single
M = married
U = urban
Px = Protestant, inactive
PV = Protestant, devout
Jx = Jewish, inactive
N OF Total Population: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
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739
{Table continued on next page)
Mean of Total Population: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
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S-U 0-8 16-20 1.40 ± 0.23 1.66 ± 0.27 1.58 ± 0.17 1.65 ± 0.14 1.76 ± 0.15 1.76 =fc 0.13 486
S-U 9-12 11-15 0.25 ± 0.21 0.92 =»= 0.22 0.81 ± 0.14 0.87 ± O.M 0.88 ± 0.12 0.83 ± 0.10 521
S-U 9-12 16-20 1.87 ± 0.51 1.67 ± 0.36 1.02 ± 0.12 1.09 ± 0.13 1.36 ± 0.14 1.34 ± 0.12 520
S-U 13-t- 11-15 0.19 ± 0.14 0.15 i 0.10 0.04 ± 0.01 0.06 ± 0.02 0.05 ± 0.02 0.10 ± 0.03 0.07 ± 0.01 2708
S-U 13-1- 16-20 0.27 =t 0.09 0.16 ± 0.05 0.26 ± 0.07 0.20 ± 0.03 0.29 ± 0.05 0.25 =*= 0.03 0.25 ± 0.02 2762
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions {continued)
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741
{Table continued on next page)
Mean of Total Population: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
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742
Table 155. Size of sample necessary to secure stable means on total population
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of the calculations obtained from the largest sample. Means are fre-
quencies per week.
Mean of Active Population: Size of Adequate Sample
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745
(Table continued on next page)
Mean of Active Population: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes cases
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S-U 9-12 16-20 2.40 =b 0.63 2.35 ± 0.49 1.39 =fc 0.15 1.68 ± 0.18 1.92 ± 0.19 1.91 ± 0.16 520
S-U 13+ 11-15 3.22 ± 1.81 1.48 ± 0.92 0.38 ± 0.09 0.77 ± 0.20 0.57 ± 0.17 1.06 ± 0.32 0.81 ± 0.11 2708
S-U 13+ 16-20 0.63 =t 0.19 0.53 ± 0.14 0.66 ± 0.17 0.53 ± 0.07 0.70 ± 0.12 0.61 ± 0.08 0.64 ± 0.04 2762
Pre-marital latercourse with Companions {continm
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747
{Table continued on next page)
Mean of Active Population: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes cases
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748
Table 156. Size of sample necessary to secure stable means, on active population
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of the calculations obtained from the largest sample. Means are fre-
quencies per week.
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Median of Total Population: Size of
Adequate Sample. Calculations with
Samples of Various Sizes
CASES IN
LARGEST
i
50
100
200 300 400 600 1000
■ largest
sample
SAMPLE
Total Outlet
S-U
0-8
11-15
2.94
1.93
2.02 1.87 1.88
2.03
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
2.46 1
2.29
2.33 2.54 2.30
2.37
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
2.13 1
2.47
2.55 2.47 2.53
2.49
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
2.65
2.47
2.81 2.75 2.66
2.73
520
S-U !
13+
11-15
2.42
2.33
2.48 2.19 2.22 2.22 2.25
2.21
2708
S-U
13+
16-20
1.85
2.02
2.12 2.26 2.48 2.07 2.24
2.19
2762
S-U ;
13+
21-25
2.04
2.47
2.14 1.95 1.99 1.86 2.07
1.95
1844
S-U
13+
26-30
1.94
2.19
1.75 1.90 1.91
1.92
479
M-U 1
13+
21-25
2.88
3.38 1
3.26 2.98 3.14
3.11
460
M-U
13+
26-30
3.04
2.48 i
2.68 2.72 2.77
2.74
561
M-U
13+
31-35
2.31
2.40
2.35 2.47
2.33
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
2.75 i
2.03
2.02 1.60 1.88
1.78
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
2.03
2.25
2.14 2.23 2.32
2.24
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
2.55
2.41
2.25 2.26
2.33
^ 375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
1.88
2.19
2.11 2.03 2.30
2.17
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
2.08
2.63
2.30 2.28 2.34 i
2.30
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
2.21
2.11
2.22 2.08 1.93
1.98
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
1.96
1.93
1.79 1.74 1.86
1.83
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
1.16
1.61
1.36 1.43
1.43
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
2.11
2.29
2.75 2.34 2.58 2.45 2.55
2.45
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
2.56
2.29
2.27 2.41 2.26 2.39 2.40
2.36
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
2.54
1.94 ’
1.99 1.98 1.98 1.91 1.99
1.99
1000
Masturbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
1.25
1.03
0.82
0.81
0.92
0.93
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
0.62
0.42
0.48
0.50
0.43
0.44
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
1.46
1.16
1.28
1.29
1.27
1.30
521
S-U :
9-12
16-20
0.59
0.69
0.71
0.69
0.67
0.71
520
S-U
13+
11-15
1.69
1.67
1.78
1.67
1.61
1.63
1.67
1.60
2708
S-U
13+
16-20
0.91
1.17
1.24
1.26
1.51
1.10
1.19
1.23
2762
S-U
13+
21-25
0.47
0.89
0.71
0.69
0.69
0.69
0.70
0.68
1844
S-U
13+
26-30
0.41
0.59
0.45
0.49
0.52
0.49
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
1.32
0.94
1.01
0.87
0.91
0.89
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.33 !
0.45
0.47
0.45
0.49
0.46
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
1.15
1.10
1.14
1.10
1.13
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15 ‘
1,75
1.72
1.63
1.47
1.72
1.58
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
1.13
1.71
1.53
1.27
1.55
1.41
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
1.64
1.55
1.49
1.52
1.37
1.42
547
s-PV
13+
16-20
1.28
1.25
0.97
0.90
1.09
1.00
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
0.53
0.74
0.65
0.58
0.60
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
1.66
1.89
2.14
1.73
1.88
1.78
1.90
1.82
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
1.88
1.42
1.21
1.37
1.39
1.58
1.39
1.41
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.64
0‘.72
0.75
0.74
0.83
0.76
0.80
1000
Nocturnal Emissions
S-U 0-8 11-15 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 490
S-U 0-8 16-20 0.05 0.01 0.03 0.03 0.03 0.03 486
S'U 9-12 11-15 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 521
S-U 9-12 16-20 0.04 0.07 0.08 0.07 0.07 0.06 520
S-U 13+ 11-15 0.22 0.12 0.11 0.10 0.10 0.11 0.10 0.11 2708
{Table continued on next pa^c)
750
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Median of Total Population: Size of
Adequate Sample. Calculations with
Samples of Various Sizes
CASES IN
LARGEST
SAMPLE
1
50
100
200
300
400
o^
o
o
1000
largest
SAMPLE
Nocturnal Emissions {continued)
S-U
13 +
16-20
0.24
0.22
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
0.25
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
0.27
0.24
0.24
0.22
0.20
0.22
0.23
0.22
1844
S-U
13 +
26-30
0.13
0.17
0.16
0.20
0.17
0.18
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
0.04
0.04
0.04
0.05
0.05
0.05
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
0.06
0.07
0.04
0.05
0.06
0.06
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
0.05
0.06
0.04
0.05
0.05
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.00
0.02
0.02
0.02
0.03
0.02
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.08
0.12
0.10
0.17
0.12
0.15
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.22
0.27
0.23
0.26
0.26
0.24
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
0.14
0.16
0.10
0.14
0.12
0.12
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
0.25
0.27
0.23
0.26
0.26
0.27
557
S-P-v/
13+
21-25
0.21
0.17
0.23
0.26
0.26
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.11
0.12
0.07
0.09
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.09
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
0.17
0.21
0.24
0.21
0.25
0.23
0.24
0.24
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.15
0.21
0.18
0.20
0.20
0.20
0.20
‘ 0.20
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
s-u
0-8
11-15
0.63
0.00
0.07
0.06
0.00
0.02
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
0.88
0.74
0.72
0.68
0.69
0.69
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
0.52
0.41
0.34
0.27
0.35
0.34
520
s-u
13+
11-15
0,00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
0.06
0.06
0.06
0.07
0.06
0.03
0.05
0.04
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
0.04
0.05
0.03
0.09
0.06
0.08
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.22
0.09
0.08
0.00
0.05
0.06
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.63
0.73
0.51
0.70
0.77
0.70
493
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0,00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
60 l
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00 1
0.00 i
0.00
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
0.00
io.oo
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
557
S-Px i
13+
11-15
0,00
10.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00 i
0.00 i
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
0.00
0,00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.06
0.03
0.02
0.05
0.04
0.04
0.05
0.05
1000
Marital Intercourse
M-U
13 +
21-25
2.36
2.58
2.77
2.41
2.59
2.57
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
2.46
1,99
2.22
2.20
2.22
2.19
561
M-U
13+
31-35
1.92
1.91
1.92
1.91
•
1.88
438
Total Extra-marital Intercourse
M-U
13 +
21-25
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
0.00
438
Table 157. Size of sample necessary to secure stable medians on total population
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of the
calculations obtained from the largest sample. Medians are frequencies per week.
751
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Median of Actt\^ Population: Size of
Adequate Sample. Calculations with
Samples of Various Sizes
CASES IN
LARGEST
50
100 1 200
300
400
1
600
1000
LARGEST
SAMPLE
SAMPLE
Total Outlet
S-U
0-8
11-15
3.38
2.22
2.31
2.22
2.26
2.36
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
2.46
2.33
2.37
2.60
2.36
2.44
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
2.63
2,67
2.61
2.56
2.63
2.61
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
2.65
2.47
2.81
2.77
2.67
2.74
520
S-U
13 +
11-15
2.50
2.40
2.63
2.29
2.37
2.35
2.35
2.34
2708
S-U
13 +
16-20
1.85
2.05
2.12
2.26
2.48
2.07
2.25
2.20
2762
S-U
13 +
21-25
2.04
2.47
2.14
1.95
1.99
1.86
2.08
1.95
1844
S-U
13 +
26-30
1.94
2.19
1.75
1.90
1.91
1.92
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
2.88
3.38
3.26
2.98
3.14
3.11
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
3.04
2.48
2.68
2.72
2.77
2.74
561
M-U
13+
31-35
2.31
2.40
2.35
2.47
2.33
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
3.10
2.18
2.15
1.88
2.13
2.03
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
2.03
2,29
2.19
2.26
2.37
2.29
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
2.80
2.58
2.38 i
2.40
2.48
^ 375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
1.88
2.31
2.21
2.12
2.39
2.29
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
2.08
2.63
2.30
2.28
2.34
2.30
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
2.33
2.32
2.34
2.18
2.02
2.10
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
1.96
1.93
1.80
1.76
1.86
1.83
557
s-pv
13 +
21-25 1
1.19
1.64
1.38
1.43
1.43
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15 i
2.21
2.46
2.81
2.50
2.72
2.56
2.67
2.58
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
2.56
2.29
2.27
2.41
2.28
2.41
2.40
2.37
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
2.54
1.94
1.99
1.99
1.98
1.91
1.99
1.99
1000
Masturbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
1.46
1.47
1.04
1.05
1.19
1.18
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
0.68
0.61
0.64
0.69
0.56
0.59 1
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
1.80
1.48
1.41
1.48
1.46
1.52
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
0.72
0.83
0.81
0.86
0.81
0.86
520
S-U
13+
11-15
2.30
1.96
2.33
1.97
2.07
2.10
2.11
2.09
2708
S-U
13+
16-20
1.04
1.40
1.58
1.61
1.69
1.41
1.56
1.55
2762
S-U
13+
21-25
0.50
1.54
0.92
0.83
0.86
0.86
0.89
0.87
1844
S-U
13+
26-30
0.44
0.74
0.73
0.70
0.73
0.69
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
1.55
1.28
1.15
1.05
1.12
1.08
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.43
0.61
0.61
0.58
0.64
0.60
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
1.50
1.24
1.38
1.30
1.35
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
2.50
2.28
2.12
2.01
2.27
1
2.16
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
1.75
1.83
1.80
1.56
1.73
i
1.68
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
1.89
1.92
2.09
1.99
1.81
1.88
1 547
S-PV
13+
16-20
1.41
1.56
1.36
1.21
1.38
1.33
! 557
S-PV
13+
21-25
0.70
0.92
0.83
0.79
0.81
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
1.97
2.46
2.47
2.42
2.45
2.24
2.36
2.30
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
2.25
1.48
1.39
1.53
1.56
1.72
1.59
1.62
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.86
0.90
0.93
0.88
0.98
0.88
0.93
0.93
1000
Nocturnal Emissions
S-U
0-8
11-15
0.06
0.07
0.07
0.07
0.08
0.08
490
S-U :
0-8 j
16-20
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.10
0.09 :
0.09
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
0.09
0.16 1
0.09
0.10
0.10
0.12
521
152
{Table continued on next page)
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
i
AGE
Median of Active Population: Size of
Adequate Sample. Calculations with
Samples of Various Sizes
cases in
largest
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
sample
SAMPLE
Nocturnal Emissions (continued)
s-u
9-12
16-20
0.13
0.20
0.14
0.15
0.14
0.14 1
520
s-u
13 +
11-15
0.31
0.28
0.28
0.27
0.27
0.27
0.27
0.28
2708
S-U
13 +
16-20
0.26
0.28
0.30
0.29
0.29
0.30
0.29
0.29
2762
S-U
13 +
21-25
0.33
0.31
0.29
0.29
0.27
0.29
0.29
0.28
1844
S-U
13 +
26-30
0.20
0.24
0.24
0.26
0.24
0.25
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
0.09
0.08
0.09
0.10
0.09
0.09
460
M-U
13 +
26-30 •
0.09
0.09
0.08
0.08 1
0.09
0.09
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
0.08
0.10
0.09
0.09
0.08
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15 !
0.08
0.10
0.08
0.07
0.08
0.08
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0 07
0.07
0.08
0.08
0.09
0.09
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
0.26
0.13
0.10
0.09
0.10
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
0.18
0.29
0.26
0.29
0.28
0.29
601
S-Jx-
13 +
16-20
0.28
0.34
0.30
0.33
0.32
0.31
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
0.34
0.33
0.29
0.29
0.29
0.29
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
0.31
0.31
0.28
0.28
0.29
0.30
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
0.23
0.26
0.28
0.30
j 0.30
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
0.33
0.29
0.24
0.25
0.31
0.26
0.27
0.27
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
0.27
0.26
0.29
0.26
0.29
0.27
0.27
1 0.28
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
0.23
0.25
0.27
0.27
0.26 1
0.27
0.26
0.26
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
S-U
0-8
11-15
1.25
1.69
1.13
1.26
1.34
1.27
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
1.50
0.89
0.98
1.18
1.05
1.06
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
0.44
0.98
0.75
0.75
0.81
0.74
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
0.77
1.06
0.68
0.91
0.85
0.83
520
s-u
13 +
11-15
3.50
0.20
0.18
0.43
0.27
0.31
0.29
0.26
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
0.34
0.20
0.20
0.23
0.24
0.22
0.24
0.22
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
0.41
0.33
j 0.32
0.33
0.36
0.34
0.33
0.32
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
0.69
0.69
0.49
0.48
0.45
0.47
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
1.20
0.98
1.29
1.08
1.30
1.19
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.80
0.98
0.83
0.89
1.04
0.97
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
1.17
0.93
0.89
0.86
0.87
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
0.10
0.06
0.09
0.09
0.08
0.08
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.20
0.27
0.14
0.20
0.17
0.16
607
S-PV
13+ :
11-15
1.50
0.75
0.38
0.43
0.34
0.36
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
0.07
0.28
0.12
0.26
0.16
0.16
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
0.17
0.15
0.14
0.14
0.17
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.20
0.30
0.09
0.32
0.29
0.27
0.20
0.27
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
0.22
0.23
0.19
0.28
0.28
0.21
0.26
0.23
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
0.28
0.34
0.30
0.30
0.32
0.31
0.31
0.31
1000
Marital Intercourse
M-U
13 +
21-25
2.36
2.58
2.78
2.43
2.60
2.58
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
12.46
2.00
2.24
2.21
2.24
2.20
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
1.92
1.92
1.93
1.92
1.88
438
753
{ Table continued on next page)
754
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN IVIALE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Median of Active Population: Size of
Adequate Sample. Calculations with
Samples of Various Sizes
CASES IN
LARGEST
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
SAMPLE
SAMPLE
Total Extra-marital Intercourse
M-U
13+
21-25
0.10
0.08
0.14
0.10
0.11
0.12
460
M-U
13+
26-30
0.34
0.23
0.08
0.09
0.11
0.10
561
M-U
13+
31-35 i
1
0.10
1
0.21
0.19
0.21
0.18
438
Homosexual Outlet
S-U
0-8
11-15
0.75
0.46
0.41
0.34
0.36
0.42
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
0.50
0.32
0.35
0.37
0.33
0.35
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
0.42
0.30
0.28
0.26
0.29
0.32
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
0.28
0.30
0.37
0.49
0.37
0.35
520
S-U !
13+
11-15
0.08
0.09
0.08
0.09
0.10
0.10
0.09
0.09
2708
S-U
13+ !
16-20
0.08
0.08
0.19
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.09
2762
S-U
13 +
21-25
0.23
0.30
0.50
0.28
0.22
0.17
0.21
0.26
1844
S-U
13+ 1
26-30
0.75
0.88 !
0.75
0.65
0.57 i
0.75
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.75
0.10
0.44
0.32
0.34
0.36
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.43
0.46
0.21
0.30
0.29
0.30
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
0.88
0.38
0.23
0.20
0.29
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
0.10
0,08
0.08
0.09
0.08
0.09
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
0.08
1.25
0.26
0.07
0.08
0.09 i
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
0.09
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
0.07
0.08
0.07
0.08
0.09
i
0.09
557
S-PV
13+
21-25 1
0.30
0.08
0.10
0.20
i
0.23
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.09
0.09
0.18
0.13
0.10
0.10
0.10 1
0.09
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
0.15
0.07
0.09
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.08
0.08
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.50
0.38
0.24
0.25
0.32
0.22 j
0.24
0.24
1000
Table 158. Size of sample necessary to secure stable medians on active
population
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of
the calculations obtained from the largest sample. Medians are frequencies per week.
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
755
Incidence: Size of Adequate Sample
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
LARGEST
sample
CASES
IN
LARGEST
SAMPLE
Total Outlet
S-U
0-8
11-15
92.0
90.0
92.5
92.3
91.5
92.4
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
100.0
98.0
98.5
98.3
98.0
97.7
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
92.0
95.0
97.0
96.7
; 95.7
95.4
1 521
s-u
9-12
16-20
100.0
100.0
100.0
99.3
1 99.7
99.6
i 520
s-u
13+
11-15
98.0
97.0
95.5
96.3
95.0
94.8
96.6
95.8
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
100.0
99.0
100.0
100.0
1 100.0
100.0
99.8
99.7
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
1 100.0
100.0
99.9
99.9
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
479
M-U-
13+
21-25
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
561
M-U
13+
31-35
100.0
100.0|
loo.o!
100.0
1
100.0
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
94.0
94.0
96.0
93.3
93.7
1 93.8
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
100.0
98.0
98.0
99.0
98.0
! 98.2
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
90.0i
94.0
95.5
95.7
i 95.2
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
100.0
96.0
96.0
97.0
97.2
96.0
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
94.0
94.0
95.5
96.0
96.0
95.4
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
100.0
100.0
99.5
99.3
100.0
99.6
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
98.0
99.0
99.5
100.0
99.7
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
94.0
96.0
98.0
93.7
96.0
96.5
96.3
96.0
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
100.0
100.0
100.0
100.0
99.5
99.5
99.8
99.7
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
100.0
100.0
100.0
99.3
99.7
99.8
99.8
99.8
1000
Masturbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
88.0
86.0
86.0
85.0
85.7
86.7
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
92.0
82.0
85.5
86.3
84.2
84.8
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
86.0
86.0
92.5
91.7
90.7
90.0
521
S-u
9-12
16-20
92.0
89.0
92.0
88.0
90.0
89.8
520
s-u
13+
11-15
78.0
85.0
83.5
83.3
81.2
81.2
82.8
82.0
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
92.0
88.0
86.0
88.3
91.2
90.7
88.4
88.7
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
94.0
84.0
86.5
90.0
87.0
87.8
87.3
87.3
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
94.0
89.0
81.0
84.0
85.5
85.4
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
88.0
86.0
92.5
88.01
88.5
88.1
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
82.0
83.0
87.5
85.7
86.7
85.8
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
86.0
91.0
90.5
90.7
90.4
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
86.0
80.0
78.0
79.3
80.0
80.0
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
82.0
94.0
85.5
88.7
88.7
88.1
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
82.0
78.0
80.5
79.3
81.7
80.8
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
92.0
82.0
86.0
83.7
87.5
85.6
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
86.0
87.0
84.5
83.3
I
83.6
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
80.0
84.0
89.5
; 81.0
84,5
85.5
85.5
1 84.7
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
92.0
96.0
93.5
93.0
93.0
92.7
92.0
91.5
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
84.0
88.0
86.5
90.0
89.0
90.5
90.3
90.3
1 1000
{Table continued on next page)
756
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
s-u
0-8
11-15
28.0
27.0
27.5
29.0
25.2
26.9
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
68.0
53.0
59.0
58.7
59.5
58.4
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
40.0
44.0
45.0
42.0
40.7
41.8
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
62.0
69.0
76.0
72.3
71.7
70.6
520
s-u
13 +
11-15
82.0
74.0
70.0
70.7
73.7
73.2
72.7
71.4
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
96.0
87.0
89.5
91.0
90.2
90.8
90.7
90.8
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
88,0
84.0
87.5
83.0
86.7
85.7
86.3
86.3
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
82.0
84.0
84.0
86.7
85.0
84.6
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
66.0
68.0
65.5
67.3
66.2
66.3
"460
M-U
13 +
26-30
76.0
78.0
66.5
70.3
74.7
72.4
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
74.0
72.0
65.5
69.7
68.7
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
28.0
22.0
25.0
26.7
25.5
26.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
50.0
56.0
57.5
57.7
58.5
56.6
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
42.0
39.0
43.5
40.3
40.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
72.0
75.0
75.5
78.7
74.7
75.4
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
88.0
86.0
86.0
87.0
87.7
86.2
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
70.0
71.0
69.0
72.0
70.0
70.7
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
84,0
91.0
90.0
94.7
92.5
92.5
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
94.0
85.0
88.0
90.7
90.1
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
70.0
67.0
64,0
68.7
66.0
67.3
66.6
68.0
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
82.0
90.0
89.0
89.0
91.2
91.5
92.1
91.7
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
86.0
89.0
81.5
85.7
86.7
86.5
86.9
86.9
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
S-U
0-8
11-15
66.0
44.0
54.5
52.7
50.0
51.2
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
82.0
88.0
86.5
82.7
83.0
83.1
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
42.0
46,0
48.0
43.7
44.0
43.2
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
78.0
71.0
73.5
65.0
70.7
70.4
520
s-u
13+
11-15
6.0
10.0
11.5
7.7
8.2
9.0
7.3
9.0
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
42.0
30.0
39.5
36.7
41.5
40.3
38.6
39.1
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
58.0
59.0
60.0
63.3
58.7
54.5
57.9
57.0
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
52.0
57.0
54.0
63.3
58.7
60.5
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
58.0
56.0
52.5
50.0
52.0
52.4
481
S-Px I
0-8
16-20
86.0
88.0
84.5
90.3
87.5
1
86.4
493
S-Px i
9-12
11-15
28.0
54.0
42.0
48.7
i
45.9
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
10.0
.4.0
5.0
6.3
7.7
6.5
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
36.0
44.0
41.5
43.0
41.5
41.5
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
10.0
8.0
7.0
8.0
7.5
7.1
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
20.0
23.0
23.0
25.0
23.0
23.9
' 557
S-PV
13+
21-25
16.0
34.0
32.5
33.0
32.6
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
12.0
7.0
11.5
10.3
10.7
10.8
9.7
10.3
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
42.0
38.0
46.5
42.7
40.7
39.5
41.2
41.1
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
64.0
55.0
54.5
59.0
56.7
57.8
58.6
58.6
1000
(Table continued on next page)
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
757
M-U
13+
21-25
lOO.o'
100.0
99.5
99.3
99.5
99.6
460
M-U
13+
26-30
100.0
99.0
99.0
99.3
99.0
99.3
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
100.0
99.0
99.5
99.7
99.5
438
Total Extra-marital Intercourse
M-U
13+
21-25
18.0
14.0
14.5
16.7
16.0
16.3
460
M-U
13+
26-30
22.0
23.0
26.0
24.0
23.5
25.0
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
26.0
27.0
32.5
36.0
34.0
438
Homosexual Outlet
S-U
0—8
11-15
38.0
23.0
26.5
26.0
28.0
27.3
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
38.0
26.0
1 33.0
34.0
31.5
30.2
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
38.0
30.0
36.5
37.7
36.0
36.5
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
44.0
44.0
42.0
45.3
45.0
45.6
520
s-u
13+
11-15
20.0
18.0
29.0
23.0
22.2
21.2
22.6
21.9
2708
s - u .
13+
16-20
22.0
22.0
14,0
13.0
17.7
16.3
15.0
16.0
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
10.0
10.0
9.5
9.3
11.2
9.0
11.2
10.2
1844
s-u
13-1-
26-30
20.0
22.0
17.0
14.7
17.7
16.9
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
30.0
22.0
24.0
23.3
23,7
22.5
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
20.0
22.0
25,5
24.7
25.0
24.5
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
32.0
30.0
29.5
33.3
34.1
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
14.0
16,0
13.0
16.7
14.2'
14.6
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
8.0
8.0
10.5
12.3
9.2
10.7
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
16.0
26.0
22.0
20.7
“ 22.7
23.8
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
18.0
22.0
17.0
16.7
18.2
17.4
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
8.0
7.0
6.5
6.0
6.2
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
24.0
31.0
26.0
25.3
25.5
28.2
26.8
25.6
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
20.0
19.0
19.0
16.7
21.0
18.0
19.2
18.0
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
14.0
12.0
13.0
11.0
12.2
11.8
11.5
11.5
1000
Table 159. Size of sample necessary to secure stable incidence data
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 2 per cent, plus or minus, of
the calculations obtained from the largest sample.
758
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Locus OF Mode: Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
cases
IN
LARGEST
SAMPLE
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
SAMPLE
Total Outlet
S-U
0~8
11-15
2.0
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
2.5
2.5
2.0
1.0
1.0
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
2.0
3.5
3.0
1.0
1.0
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
1„0
1.5
1.0
1.5
1.0
520
s-u
13 +
11-15
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
2708
s-u
13 +
16-20
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.0
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
2.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
1844
s-u
13 +
26-30
1.5
2.0
0.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.5
3.0
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
3.0
2.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
2.0
2.5
2.0
2.0
2.0
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
1.5
1.0
1.0
0.5
0.5
1.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
1.0
2.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
' 493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
2.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
3.0
1.5
0.5
2.5
0.5
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
3*5
2.0
1.0
1.5
1.0
1.0
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
384
S-Px
13+
11-15 1
1.0
2.0
3.5
0.5
0.5 1
0.5
3.5
3.5
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
2.0
2.0
1.5
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.5
1513
S-Px 1
13+
21-25
0.5
0.5 i
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1000
MRStiirbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
0.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
520
s-u
13+
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
0.5
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
1.0
1.0
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
1.5
0.5
1.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
« . i
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.5
0.5
2.0
0.5
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
0.6
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1 547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
1 0.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
i 557
S-PV
13+
21-25
0.5
0,5
0.5
0.5
0.5
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
0.0
0.0
2.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
! 0.0
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
0.5
4‘.0
1.0
1.0
1.0
0.5
1.0
1.0
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1000
Nncturnai Emissions
S-U
s-u
S-U
s-u
0-8
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0,0 i
0.0
0-8
16-20
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0 1
0.0
9-12
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
9-12
16-20
0.0
0.5
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
490
486
521
520
{Table continued on next page)
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
759
Locus OF Mode : Size of Adequate Sample
FDTIG.
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
CASES
GROUP
AGE
IN
LEVEL
LARGEST
50 100 200 300 400 600 1000
SAMPLE
SAMPLE
Nocturnal Emissions {continued)
s-u
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1844
s-u
13 +
26-30
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
479
M-U
13 +
21-25
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
601
S-Jx
,13+
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
607
S-PV
13+
11-15 i
0.5
0.0
0.5
0.5
0.5
547
S-PV
13+
16-20 j
0.5
0.5
0.5
0,5
0.5
0.5
557
S-PV
13+
21-25 1
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15 1
0.0
0.5
0.0
0.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
0.5
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
S-U
0—8
11-15
0.0
0.0
0,0
0.0
0.0
0.0
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
0.5
0.5
0,5
0.5 1
0.5
486
S-U '
9-12
11-15
0.0
' 0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
521
S-u
9-12
16-20
0.5
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
520
s-u
13+
11-15
0.0
0.0 1
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
2708
s-u
13 +
16-20
0.0
0.0 j
0.0
0.0 !
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1844
s-u
13 +
26-30
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0 i
0.0
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0 j
0.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
. .
0.5
0.5
0.5 !
0.5
0.5
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1 0.0
0.0
0.0
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
0.0
I 0.0
0.0
0.0
1000
Marital Intercourse
M-U
13+
21-25
2.5
2.0
3.0
3.0
2.0
2.0
460
M-U
13+
26-30
1.5
2.0
3.0
2.0
2.0
1 2.0
561
M-U
13+
31-35
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
2.0
438
Table 160. Size of sample necessary to fix the locus of the mode
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of
the calculations obtained from the largest sample.
760
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE EIUMAN MALE
Height of Mode: Size of Adequate Sample
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
age
CASES IN
LARGEST
1 50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
SAMPLE
SAMPLE
Total Outlet
s-u
0-8
11-15
140
16.0
12.0
13.3
12.3
12.0
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
14.0
13.0
11.5
9.7
11.0
10.5
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
14.0
13.0
12.0
10.7
10.3
9.6
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
20.0
13.0
15.0
10.7
11.5
11.2
520
s-u
13+
11-15
18.0
16.0
12.5
13.7
12.3
12.0
12.7
12.4
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
18.0
14.0
15.0
15.3
11.0
13.8
12.3
11.9
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
18.0
15.0
15.0
15.0
14.5
15.3
14.0
14.8
1844
S-u
13 +
26-30
16.0
15.0
17.0
17.0
16.0
16.3
479
M-U
13 +
21-25 1
20.0
12.0
15.0
17.3
13.8
14.1
' 460
M-U
13 +
26-30
22.0
19.0
17.5
13.3
14.3
13.9
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
20.0
18,0
18.5
16.3
17.1
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
14.0
16.0
16.0
14.3
12.5
13.3
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
22.0
13.0
13.0
12 3
10.5
11.1
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
10.0
13.0
11.5
11.7
10.9
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
22.0
14.0
17.0
16.0
14.3
13.8
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
16.0
14.0
12.0
12.0
12.3
11,2
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
12.0
14.0
12 0
13,0
14.0
13.7
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
16.0
17.0
15 0
14.7
14.5
14.2
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
20.0
17.0
i 20.0
18.7
19.3
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
22.0
15.0
12.5
10.3
11.0
11.0
9.9
9.9
J471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
12.0
17.0
14.5
11.7
12.5
11.3
11.7
11.8
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
16.0
16.0
17.0
14.7
15.5
15.8
14.7
14.7
1000
Masturbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
18.0
19.0
18.5
18.3
17.5
18.0
49C
S-U
0-8
16-20
32.0
29.0
29.5
28.3
30.5
29.2
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
14.0
17.0
18.0
19.0
18.3
17.3
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
28.0
23.0
25.5
24.3
26.0
25.0
520
S-U
13+
11-15
22.0
15.0
16.5
16.7
18.8
18.8
17.2
18.0
2708
S-U
13+
16-20
28.0
20.0
18.5
19.3
15.5
18.8
16.6
16.5
2762
S-U
13+
21-25
44.0
20.0
22.0
24.3
23.3
24.5
24.7
24.5
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
40.0
26.0
22.5
25.3
26.3
26.5
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
14.0
20.0
20.0
19.7
18.0
18.3
481
S.Px
0-8
16-20
36.0
27.0
29.5
31.3
30.8
31.2
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
20.0
26,0
22.0
22.3
21.3
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15 ,
14.0
20.0
22.0
20.7
20.0
20.0
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
20.0
13.0
14.5
16.0
15.0
15.3
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
18.0
22.0
19.5
20.7
18.3
19.2
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
16.0
18.0
20,0
19,7
18.5
18.7
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
36.0
25.0
25.5
26.0
25.8
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
20.0
16.0
12.5
19.0
15.5
14.5
14.5
15,3
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
20.0
23.0
19.5
16.7
18.5
16.0
17.4
17.6
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
24.0
21.0
25.0
24.3
21.5
23.3
22.4
22.4
1000
{Table continued on next page)
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
761
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Height of Mode : Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
CASES IN
LARGEST
SAMPLE
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
LARGEST
sample
Nocturnal Emissions
S-U
0-8
11-15
72.0
73.0
72.5
71.0
74.8
73.1
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
36.0
47.0
41.0
41.3
40.5
41,6
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
60.0
56.0
55.0
58.0
59.3
58.2
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
38.0
32.0
35.0
32.7
33.3
32.7
520
s-u
13+
11-15
42.0
33.0
35.0
33.0
30.5
34.3
31.7
j 33.8
2708
s-u
13+
16-20 1
48.0
47.0
40.5
42.0
47.0
45.3
44.6
1 44.7
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
36.0
42.0
49.5
45.0
41.8
44.5
43.7
43.5
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
46.0
46.0
42.0
45.3
42.5
44.3
479
M-U
-13+
21-25
40.0
42.0
35.5
34.0
36.0
35.2
460
M-U
13+
26-30
42.0
43.0
42.0
42.0
40.3
40.8
561
M-U
13 +
31-35 1
48.0
37.0
38.5
40.3
40.9
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
72.0
78.0
75.0
73.3
74.5
74.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
50.0
44.0
42.5
42.3
41.5
43.4
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
58.0
61.0
56.5
59.7
60.0
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
34.0
30.0
29.5
37.0
31.8
33.6
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
42.0
41.0
39.0
37.7
40.5
38.9
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
30.0
35.0
31.0
37.3
35.3
35.8
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
56.0
48.0
43.5
51.0
49.0
48.8
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
48.0
35.0
48.0
47.7
45.8
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
30.0
37.0
36.0
32.3
34.0
32.7
33.4
32.0
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
38.0
45.0
44.0
44.7
46.3
44.7
43,6
45.3
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
38.0
51.0
41.5
43.3
45.0
43.7
44.5
44.5
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
s-u
0-8
11-15
34.0
56.0
45.5
47.3
50.0
48.8
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
18.0
21.0
19.0
20.3
19.5
19.3
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
58.0
54.0
52.0
56.3
56.0
56.8
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
24.0
29.0
26.5
35.0
29.3
29.6
520
s-u
13 +
11-15
94.0
90.0
88.5
92.3
91.8
91.0
92,7
91.0
2708
s-u
13 +
16-20
58.0
70.0
60.5
63.3
58.5
59.7
61.4
60.9
2762
s-u
13 +
21-25
42.0
41.0
40.0
36.7
41.3
45.5
42.1
43.0
1844
s-u
13 +
26-30
48.0
43.0
46.0
36.7
41.3
39.5
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
42.0
44.0
47.5
50.0
48.0
47.6
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
20.0
24.0
24,0
24.3
22.0
22.3
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
72.0
46.0
58.0
51.3
54.1
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
90.0
96.0
95.0
93.7
92.3
93.5
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
64.0
56.0
58.5
57.0
58.5
58.5
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
90.0
92.0
93.0
92.0
92.5
92.9
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
80 0
77.0
77.0
75.0
77.0
76.1
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
84.0
66.0
67.5
67.0
67.4
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
88.0
93.0
88.5
89.7
89.3
89.2
90.3
89.7
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
58.0
62.0
53.5
57.3
59.3
60.5
58.8
58.9
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
36.0
45.0
45.5
41.0
43.3
42.2
41.4
41.4
1000
{Table continued on next page)
762
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
M-U
13+ i
21-25
18.0
13.0
13.5
13.3
13.5
13.5
460
M-U
13+
26-30
16.0
17.0
14.5
14.0
15.8
16.4
561
M-U
13 +
31-35
18.0
19.0
24.5
18.0
1
20.3
438
Total Extra-marital Intercourse
M-U
13+
21-25
82.0
86.0
85.5
83.3
84.0
83.7
460
M-U
13+
26-30
78.0
77.0
74.0
76.0
76.5
75.0
' 561
M-U
13 +
31-35
74.0
73.0
1
67.5
64.0
66.0
438
Homosexual Outlet
SrU
0-8
11-15
62.0
77.0
73.5
74.0
72.0
72.7
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
62.0
74.0
67.0
66.0
68.5
69.8
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
62.0
70.0
63.5
62.3
64.0
63.5
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
56.0
56.0
58.0
54.7
55.0
54.4
520
s-u
13+
11-15
80.0
82,0
71,0
77.0
77.8
78.8
77.4
78.1
2708
s-u
13 +
16-20
78.0
78.0
86.0
87.0
82.3
83.7
85.0
84.0
.2762
s-u
13+
21-25
90.0
90.0
90.5
90.7
88.8
91.0
88.8
89.8
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
80.0
78.0
83.0
85.3
82.3
83.1
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
70.0
78.0
76.0
76.7
76.3
77.5
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
80.0
78.0
74.5
75.3
75.0
75.5
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
68.0
70.0
70.5
66.7
' 65.9
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
86.0
84.0
87.0
83.3
85.8
85.4
601
S-Jx
13 +
16-20
92.0
92.0
89.5
87.7
90.8
89.3
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
84.0
74.0
78.0
79.3
77.3
76.2
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
82.0
78.0
83.0
83.3
81.8
82.6
557
S-PV
13 +
21-25
92.0
93.0
93.5
94.0
93.8
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
76.0
69.0
74.0
74.7
74.5
71.8
73.2
74.4
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
80.0
81.0
81.0
83.3
79.0
82.0
80.8
82.0
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
86.0
88.0
87.0
89.0
87.8
88.2
88.5
88.5
1000
Table 161. Size of sample necessary to fix the height of the mode
Boldface figures designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of
the calculations obtained from the largest sample.
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
763
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Range : Maximum Frequency Minus 1 :
Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
cases
in
largest
sample
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
sample
Total Outlet
s-u
0-8
11-15
14.0
25.0
18.0
22.0
22.0
25.0
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
9.0
16.0
16.0
17.0
26.0
26.0
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
11.0
19.0
23.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
18.0
26.0
16.0
26.0
26.0
26.0
520
s-u
13+
11-15
14.0
13.0
15.0
29.0
18.0
26.0
26.0
29.0
2708
S-U
13 +
16-20
7.5
12.0
14.0
20.0
20.0
17.0
23.0
24.0
2762
S-U
13 +
21-25
6.5
8.0
17.0
11.0
14.0
18.0
21.0
21.0
1844
s-u
13 +
26-30
8.0
16.0
17.0
17.0
17.0
17.0
479
M-U
13+
21-25
8.0
16.0
15.0
15.0
22.0
22.0
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
10.0
11.0
12.0
22.0
22.0
22.0
561
M-U
13+
31-35
8.0
14.0
20.0
18.0
20.0
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
17.0
14.0
25.0
22.0
25.0
25.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
12.0
17.0
21.0
26.0
29.0
29.0
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
11.0
16.0
19.0
23.0
1 23.0
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
9.0
26.0
25.0
25.0
26.0
: 29.0
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
7.5
11.0
12.0
15.0
20.0
23.0
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
9.5
8.0
9.5
12.0
12.0
13.0
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
7.5
7.5
9.0
9.5
11.0
11.0
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
6.5
7.5
8.0
10.0
11.0
384
S-Px ’
13+
11-15
14.0
10.0
14.0
22.0
20.0
15.0
23.0
25.0
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
13.0
10.0
11.0
14.0
14.0
15.0
14.0
21.0
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
11.0
11.0
13.0
14.0
15.0
15.0
17.0
17.0
1000
Masturbation
S-U
0-8
11-15
10.0
12.0
10.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
4.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
8.0
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
7.0
10.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
4.0
8.0
8,0
8.0
8.0
8.0
520
s-u
13+
11-15
14.0
10.0
14.0
14.0
15.0
15.0
15.0
29.0
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
7.0
10.0
10.0
20.0
18.0
16.0
23.0
23.0
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
5.0
7.0
11.0
7.0
10.0
15.0
15.0 j
15.0
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
5.0
7.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
10.0
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
7.0
14.0
14.0
10.0
14.0
14.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
8.0
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
10.0
9.0
12.0
10.0
12.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
7.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
' 29.0
601
S-Jx j
13+
16-20
7.0
8.5
10.0
15.0
20.0
23.0
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
7.0
' 7.0
1 7.5
7.0
8.0
12.0
547
S-PV
13 +
16-20
7.0
5.5
8.5
9.0
10.0
10.0
557
S-PV
13+
' 21-25
4.5
5.0
5.5
6.0
6.0
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
10.0
10.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
20.0
20.0
1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
8.0
10.0
10.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
14.0
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
7.0
10.0
8.0
11.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
12.0
1000
{Table continued on next page)
764
SEXUAL BEHAVIOR IN THE HUMAN MALE
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Range: Maximum Frequency Minus 1:
Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
sample
CASES
IN
largest
sample
Nocturnal Emissions
S-U
0-8
11-15
0.5
2.0
0.5
2.0
2.5
2.5
490
s-u
0-8
16-20
0.5
1.5
2.5
2.5
2.5
2.5
486
s-u
9-12
11-15
0.5 ,
1.0
3.0
4.0
5.0
5.0
521
s-u
9-12
16-20
1.0
2.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
520
s-u
13+
11-15
2.5
2.5
3.0
5.0
6.0
7.0
6.5
12.0
2708
s-u
13+
16-20
1.5
2.5
4.0
3.0
5.5
5.0
6.0
6.5
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
1.5 1
2.0
3.0
3.5
5.0
5.0
6.5
6.5
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
1.5
2.0
2.0
4.0
4.0
4.0
479
M-U
13+
21-25
1.0
1.5
2.5
4.0
4.0
4.0
460
M-U
13+
26-30
1.0 1
1.5
1.0
3.0
3.0
3.0
561
M-U
13+
31-35
1.0
1.0
1.5
3.0
3.0
438
S-Px
0-8
11-15
0.5
1.0
1.0
2.0
2.5
2.5
481
S-Px
! 0-8
16-20
2.0
2.5
2.5
2.5
2.5
2.5
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
1.5
1.5
2.0
4.0 i
4.0
375
S-Jx
13 +
11-15
1.0
3.5
3.0
3.5
6.5
6.5
601
S-Jx
13+ i
16-20
2.5
2.5
4.5
3.5
6.0
6.0
607
S-PV
13 +
11-15
2.5
1.5
3.0
5.0
7.0
7.0
547
S-PV
! 13 +
16-20
1.5
2.0
2.5 j
5.0
3.5,
5.0
557
S-Pv
13 +
21-25
2.5
2.5
2.5
5.0
5.0
384
S-Px
13 +
11-15
1.5
3.0
2.0
5.0
4.0
6.0
6.0
7.0
• 1471
S-Px
13 +
16-20
2.5
2.5
4.0
3.0
3.5
5.5
6.0
6.0
1513
S-Px
13 +
21-25
2.5
2.0
3.5
4.0
3.5
6.0
6.0
6.0
1000
Pre-marital Intercourse with Companions
S-U
0-8
11-15
12.0
20.0
14.0
15,0
17.0
20.0
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
7.0
14.0
12.0
16.0
20.0
20.0
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
2.0
12.0
10.0
25.0
25.0
25.0
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
14.0
20.0
10.0
12.0
25.0
25.0
520
s-u
13+
11-15
3.5
3.0
1.0
3.0
3.0
9.5
9.5
10.0
2708
s-u
13 +
16-20
2.0
3.0
6.0
3.0
12.0
7.0
12.0
12.0
2762
s-u
13+
21-25
5.0
5.5
6.0
9.0
9.0
8.5
17.0
17.0
1844
s-u
13+
26-30
5.5
14.0
9.5
6.0
14.0
14.0
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
11.0
6.0
20.0
15.0
20.0
i
20.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
8.0
16.0
16.0
20.0
25.0
25.0
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
3.5
9.5
10.0
14.0
14.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.5
, 0.1
0.5
0.5
0.5
3.0
601
S-Jx !
13+
16-20
2.0
1.5
5.0
5.5
5.5
1
7.0
607
S-PV
13+
11-15
2.5
2.5
2.0
3.0
3.0
4.5
547
S-PV
13+
16-20
0.5
6.0
2.5
7.0
6.0
7.0
557
S-PV
13+
21-25
0.5
3.5
6.0
7.5
7.5
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
3.0
7.0
5.0
6.0
6.0
10.0
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
3.0
2.5
3.0
6.5
7.0
7.0
7.0
9.0
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
3.0
4.5
5.5
9.0
8.0
9.0
9.0
9.0
1000
{Table continued on next page)
APPENDIX ON SAMPLE SIZE
765
GROUP
EDUC.
LEVEL
AGE
Range: Maximum Frequency Minus 1 :
Size of Adequate Sample
Calculations with Samples of Various Sizes
cases
in
50
100
200
300
400
600
1000
largest
sample
sample
Marital Intercourse
M-U
13 +
21-25
8.0
16.0
15.0
15.0
20.0
20.0
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
8.0 1
10.0
11.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
561
M-U
1
13 +
31-35
7.0
13.0
18.0
16.0
18.0
438
Total Extra-marital Intercourse
M-U
13-p
21-25
2.0
1.0
2.5
3.0 1
3.0
3.0
460
M-U
13 +
26-30
1.0
3.0
3.5
2.5
3.5
3.5
561
M-U
' 13 +
31-35
2.5
3.0
3.5
1
4.5
4.5
438
Homosexual Outlet
S-U
0-8
11-15
4.0
6.0
6.0
7.0
7.0
7.0
490
S-U
0-8
16-20
4.0
2.5
3.5
5.5
5.5
6.0
486
S-U
9-12
11-15
5.0
4.5
5.0
7.0
5.0
7.0
521
S-U
9-12
16-20
1.5
11.0
6.0
11.0
11.0
11.0
520
S-U
13+
11-15
0.5
0.5
3.0
4.0
2.5
5.0
6.0
6.0
2708
S-U
13+
16-20
1.0
2.5
2.0
3.0
2.5
5.0
2.5
7.0
2762
S-U
13+
21-25
0.5
1.0
3.0
3.5
4.5
4.5
7.0
7.0
1844
S-U '
13+
26-30
3.5
4.0
4.5
5.0
5.0
5.0
479
S-Px
0-8
11-15
3.5
3.0
6.0
6.0
6.0
6.0
481
S-Px
0-8
16-20
1.0
3.0
6.0
5.5
6.0
7.0
493
S-Px
9-12
11-15
3.0
4.5
3.0
5.0
5.0
375
S-Jx
13+
11-15
0.5
4.5
1.0
4.5
4.5
4.5
601
S-Jx
13+
16-20
0.1
2.5
2.5
3.5
3.0
3.5
607
S-PV
13+
11-15 i
2.0
2.5
2.0
2.0
4.0
4.0
547
s-pv
13+
16-20
0.5
1.0
4.0
2.0
4.0
4.0
557
S-PV
13+
21-25 1
0.5
0.5 1
1.5
1.5
3.5
384
S-Px
13+
11-15
0.5
2.0
3.0
3.0
3.5
4.0
5.0
5.0
1471
S-Px
13+
16-20
0.5
0.5
5.0
2.0
3.5
5.0
5.0
5.0
1513
S-Px
13+
21-25
2.0 !
1
1.0
5.0
6,5
4,5
5.0
6.5
6.5
1000
Table 162. Size of sample necessary to secure stable data on range of variation
The figui'cs shown represent maximum frequencies minus one case. Boldface figures
designate calculations that lie within 5 per cent, plus or minus, of the calculations
obtained from the largest sample.
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INDEX
All numbers refer to pages. Bold face entries refer to more extended treatments
of each subject. Names of authors cited are italicized.
Abnormal, defined, 7, 37, 199-203, 385-
386, 572-581
Abstinence, 205-213, 297-298, 319-326,
528-529
Accumulative incidence
Animal contacts, 669-673
Calculating, 114-119
Extra-marital intercourse, 584-588
Homosexual, 100-101, 140-141, 145-
146, 317, 321, 402-403, 617-631, 623,
650-651, 653-655
Marital coitus, 253, 281, 564-567
Marriage, 318-319
Masturbation, 96-97, 136-137, 144-145,
311, 317, 398-399, 408-409, 499-502
Nocturnal emissions, 96-97, 137-138,
144-145, 398-399, 408-409, 519-522
Oral contacts, 370-371, 373
Petting, 97-98, 406-409, 533-537
Pre-marital intercourse, 139, 141, 145-
146, 397, 400-401, 404-405, 549-551
Prostitute intercourse, 100-101, 116-
H18, 139, 141, 402-403, 597-600
Total intercourse, 98, 101, 137-138,
316-317, 396, 400-401, 404-405, 565-
567
Achilles, P. S., 23, 28, 499, 519, 552, 766
Acker son, L., 53, 766
Active incidence. See Incidence, active.
Adams, C. R., 546, 560, 766
Adolescence, 182-192, 297-326
Defined, 182-183, 298-301
Female, 183, 187
Mean age, 187-189
Physical developments, 130-131, 184-
185
Precocious, 185-186
School grade, 186-187
Sexual activity, 219-225, 506-507, 523
Variation, 182-192
Adolescence, age at onset vs.
First intercourse, 315-317
Homosexual, 312, 315, 317, 320-321,
630
Marital intercourse, 306-308, 569
Marriage, 315, 318-319
Masturbation, 310-313, 317, 324, 507
Nocturnal emissions, 315, 322, 523
Onset of activity, 298-303
Adolescence, age at onset vs.. Continued
Pre-marital intercourse, 312-315, 324,
553
Social level, 188-189
Source of first ejaculation, 300-301, 303
Total outlet, 302-308, 324
Age, determination of, 76-77
Age, old, 226-227, 235-238, 319-326
Aging, 218-262, 319-325
Animal contacts, 260-262, 671-673
Erotic response, 229-230
Extra-marital intercourse, 248, 250, 257,
259, 568, 587-588
Homosexual, 258-261, 290-292, 629-
630, 636
Marital intercourse, 252-257, 278-281,
285, 567-569
Masturbation, 238-243, 270-272, 506-
507
Nocturnal emissions, 242-245, 274-276,
521, 523
Petting, 244-249, 539
Post-marital outlets, 262-292, 294-296
Pre-marital intercourse, 248-253, 277-
288, 552-553
Prostitute intercourse, 250-253, 281,
285-288, 601
Total activity, 218-262
Total outlet, 219-221, 226-230, 266-267
Allbutt, T. C., 297, 766
Allen, C., 207, 514, 766
Allen, F. L., 39, 766
American Social Hygiene Association, 514,
527, 560, 591
Anal contacts, children, 170-171
Anal eroticism, 170-171, 579
Angus, S., 202, 263, 465, 766
Ammal contacts, 667-678
Accumulative incidence, 669-673
Active incidence, 260-262, 362-363,
46'l-464, 670
Aging effects, 260-262, 671-673
Data in interview, 65, 70
Frequencies, 260-262, 293, 362-363,
461-464, 671-673
Marital status, 289, 293, 673
Pre-adolescent, 174, 671, 673
Psychologic basis, 675-678
Rural-urban, 459-464, 670-674
789
790
INDEX
Animal contacts, Continued
Significance in total outlet, 378, 488-
491, 669-670
Social levels, 362-363, 671
Variation, 234, 671, 674
Anthropoids, 205, 222, 510, 549
Apathy, sexual, 157, 207, 209, 544-546
Apes, 205, 222, 510, 549
Appendix on sample size, 736-765
Arey, L. B., 659, 766
Armed forces, 197, 388-389, 416-417, 552,
617, 621-622, 664
Armitage, R. B., 560, 591, 766
Army. See Armed forces.
Artists, 207
Asceticism, 206, 263, 487
Assyrian code, 465, 547, 583
Athletes, sexual activities, 206
Athletics, data in interview, 64
Attitudes
Development in children, 440-447
Pre-marital intercourse, 364, 381-383,
559-562
Auto-eroticism. See Masturbation.
Babylonian code, 465, 547, 583
Bailey, E. W., 514, 546, 777
Balance, heterosexual-homosexual, 636-
659
Baldmn, B, T., 183, 185, 766
Ball, 613, 615 , 167
Barton, G, A,, 465, 547, 583, 668, 767
Basal metabolic effects, 204, 309, 313
Bauer, 227, 767
Beach, F, A., vii, 181, 369, 371, 373, 510,
589, 613, 615, 668, 767-768
Beam, L., 24, 28, 30, 499, 771
Bell, S,, 163, 768
Benedict, R., 202, 16%
Benjamin, H., 591, 606, 768
Benzedrine, 49
Bible, 473, 483, 583, 610, 668
Bibliography, 766-787
Bigelow, M. A,, 514, 529, 560, 606, 768
Bingham, H, C„ 167, 205, 222, 373, 768
Biologic factors of variation, 203-205,
309-313, 327, 660-663, 678
Bisexual, 615, 637-638, 656-659
Biskind, M. S., 204, 768
Blackwood, B., 547, 583, 768
Blanton, M, G., 163, 768
Bloch, L, 34, 513, 768
Boarding schools, sex in, 225
Boas, F., 183, 768
BoHes, M, 27, 29, 497, 514, 111
Bone, H., 514, 528, 541, 543, 560, 772
Bowman, H. A., 543, 560, 606, 768
Boy Scout Manual, 297, 513
Boys Clubs of America, 514, 530, 543, 560
Breakdown, twelve-way, 75-82, 92
Breast
Knots, 185
Sensitivity in males, 575
Stimulation, 367-371, 540, 574-575
Bridges, K. B., 181, 768
Brill, A, A., 206-207, 769
Britten, F. H., 24, 29, 31-33, 499, 533, 552,
597, 769
Brockman, F. S„ 207, 499, 769
Bromley, D. D., 24, 29, 31-33, 499, 533,
552, 597, 769
Brown, J. R, 207, 769
Bruckner, S. J„ 530, 543, 560, 769
Bryk, F., 377, 547, 559, 583, 769
Budge, E. A, W., 465, 769
Bidder, C., 181, 769
Burgess, E. W., 560, 769
Business executives, defined, 79
Butterfield, O. M., 514, 541, 552, 560, 769
Calendars, sex, 74
Campbell, E. H„ 163, 769
Carmichael, L,, 497, 769
Carpenter, C. R., 205, 510, 769-770
Casanova, 213
Case histoiy data, 63-70
Case history methods. See Interviewing
techniques.
Catholic sex patterns, 465-487
Catholic woman doctor, 543, 560, 770'
Celibacy, 213, 528
Chapin, F. 5., 77, 331, 770
Chappie, E., 547, 583, 770
Children
Anal contacts, 170-171
Anim.al contacts, 174, 671, 673
Coitus, 162, 166, 169-170, 173-174
Compamons, 168
Development of attitudes, 440-447
Eroticism, 175-181
Interviewing, 58-59
Oral contacts, 170-174
Orgasm, 159-161, 175-181
Sex play, 66, 68-69, 162-181, 497, 499-
506
Sex play, ages, 162, 167, 169, 171-173
Sex play, heterosexual, 162, 166-174
Sex play, homosexual, 162, 167-172
Sex play, incidence, 162, 165-174
Chivers, W. R,, 560, 770
Chlenov, 34, 770
Clark, L., 591, 770
Clark, P, L., 560, 770
Clarke, E. L., 543, 560, 606, '
Climacteric, male. 111, 235
Climax. See Orgasm.
INDEX
791
Clinical tables, 679-735
Married white males, 710-729
Previously married white males, 730-
735
Single white males, 686-709
Clinics, as sources of data, 201-202
Clitoris, 575-576, 659
Cobb, M., 389, 770
Coding data, 44-45, 71-73
Coefficients of correlation, 114
Coital positions, 372-374, 578-579, 604
Coital techniques, 67, 365-374, 540-542,
571-582, 604-605
Coitus, extra-marital, 583-594
Accumulative incidence, 584-588
Active incidence, 257, 259, 282, 284, 288,
348, 350, 352, 412, 431, 456, 585-587
Aging effects, 248, 250, 257, 259, 568,
587-588
Data on histories, 67
Frequencies, 257, 259, 282-288, 348,
350, 352, 354, 410, 431, 456, 586-589
Religious background, 481, 589
Rural-urban, 456, 588-589
Significance in total outlet, 489, 492-
493, 587-588, 590
Social level, 348, 350-354, 380, 382-383,
431, 586-588, 592-593
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 586-589
Coitus, first, 315-317, 565-566
Coitus, marital, 563-582
Active incidence, 252-254, 281, 355-
356, 412, 432, 459, 482, 564-565
Age at adolescence, 306-308, 569
Aging effects, 252-257, 278-281, 285,
567-569
Data on histories, 66
Frequencies, 126-128, 252-257, 278-
280, 355-356, 410, 432, 459, 482, 569-
571
Marital outlet, 252-257, 278-281
Religious background, 479-482, 569,
571
Rural-urban, 455, 459, 569
Significance in total outlet, 380, 382,
489, 492-493, 564-568
Social level, 355-357, 380, 432, 569-570
Techniques, 365-374, 571-582
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 569-571
Coitus, oldest depiction, 374
Coitus, post-marital, 67, 278-280, 282-
284, 286-288, 295, 489
Coitus, pre-adolescent, 162, 166, 169-170,
173-174
Coitus, pre-marital, 547-562
Accumulative incidence, 139, 141, 145-
146, 397, 400-401, 404-405, 549-551
Coitus, pre-marital, Continued
Active incidence, 248-251, 278, 280-
288, 313-315, 347-352, 430-431, 434-
435, 456, 458, 480-481, 552-556
Age at adolescence, 312-315, 324, 553
Aging effects, 248-253, 277-288, 552-
553
Attitudes on, 364, 381-383, 559-562
Data on histories, 66
Frequencies, 248-253, 278-288, 314,
347-355, 430-431, 434-435, 456, 458,
480-481, 552-556
Marital status, 277-288
Religious background, 477-481, 553
Rural-urban, 455--456, 458, 462, 553,
556
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
489-491 »
Social level, 347-355, 364, 376,381-383,
426-427, 430-436, 442-445, 549-559
Social significance, 559-562
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410-413, 556-557
Variation, 234, 324, 553-555
Coitus, prostitutes, 595-609
Accumulative incidence, 100-101, 116-
118, 139, 141, 402-403, 597-600
Active incidence, 250-251, 281, 285-
288, 351-353, 434-435, 458, 600-603
Aging effects, 250-253, 281, 285-288,
601
Data on histories, 67-68
Frequencies, 250-251 , 285-288, 352-354,
410-413, 434-435, 442, 458, 601-603
Marital status, 277-288, 600-601
Rural-urban, 455, 458, 462
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
489-493, 597-601
Social level, 351-355, 376, 434-435, 442,
588, 598-602
Social significance, 605-609
Techniques, 604-605
Two generations, 396, 402-403, 410-
413, 603-604
Variation, 234, 601-603
Coitus, total
Accumulative incidence, 98, 101, 137-
138, 316-317, 396, 400-401, 404-405,
565- 567
Aging effects, 256
Frequencies, 256, 278-280, 348-349,
358, 410-411, 430-431, 456, 480-481
Social level, 316, 348-349, 358, 400,404,
410-411, 413, 430-431, 456, 480-481,
566- 567
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410
Common law, Anglo-American, 202-203,
263-265, 465
792
INDEX
Companions, pre-adolescent, 168
Compulsions, 202
Conditioning, psychologic, 157, 204, 216-
217, 309, 327-328, 440-447, 509, 515-
518, 523, 529, 569-571, 661, 676-678
Confidence of record, 44-47
Conn, J, H., 163, 770
Conservation, sexual, 297-326, 512-516
Contacts, animal. See Animal contacts.
Contacts, homosexual. See Homosexual.
Contacts, oral, 170-172, 368-373, 540,
573-578, 605-607, 614-616
Contraception, techniques, 67
Contrary to nature, 201-203, 389, 572-
581, 604, 677-678
Convulsions, in orgasm, 160-161
Coon, C., 547, 583, 770
Cooper, C. R., 395, 770
Coppens, C., 513, 560, 606, 770
Copulation. See Coitus.
Corner, G, W„ 514, 530, 546, 770-771
Correlation coefficients, 114
Cottrell, L, S., 560, 769
Courts, 4, 223-225, 237-238, 263-265,
389-393, 437, 447, 572, 577-578, 583,
601, 603, 605, 655, 664-666, 677
Crampton, C. W., 130, 131, 183, 771
Crisp, K. B., 513, 530, 560, 606, 771
Cross-checks, in interviewing, 54-55, 128-
130
Cunnilingus, 170-174, 368-373, 540, 573-
578
Curry, E. T„ 185, 771
Curtis, L. k, 204, 778
Customs. See Mores.
Daily sexual activity, 205
Dark and light, preferences for, 581
Davis, H., All, 503, 543, 560, 771
Davis, K. B., vii, 24, 28, 34, 771
Day laborers, 78, 426-427
Dearborn, W. F., 183, 771
Deep kissing, 368-369, 540, 574
Defects, physical, 209
Delayed activity, 210, 301-303
Delayed orgasm, 580-581
Delinquency, contributing to, 237-238
Delinquency, juvenile, 163-174, 223-225,
263-265, 389-393, 437, 664-666
Dependents, defined, 78
Diaries, sex, 74
Dickerson, R. R, 297, 514, 530, 543, 546,
560, 606, 771
Dickinson, R. L., viii, 24, 28, 31, 34, 499,
659, 771
Differential impotence, 517
Dimock, H. S., 130-131, 183, 771
Diodes, 297
Divorce, 295, 544-546, 578, 591-594
Dream content, 525-527
Dreams, wet. See Nocturnal emissions.
Drugs, 49, 521
Dudycha, G, 163, 771
Ecclesiastic law, 202, 465
Economic data, 63-64, 333-334
Eddy, S„ 514, 528, 543, 560, 591, 597, 606,
111
Edson, N. W., 543, 772
Educational data, 63
Educational level, 327-417. See also Social
level.
Adolescence, age at, 188-189
Ammal contacts, 362-363, 671
Coital positions, 312-314, 578-579, 604
Coital techniques, 365-374, 540-542,
571-582, 604-605
Defimtion, 77, 329-331
Erotic responsiveness, 345, 363-364
Extra-marital intercourse, 348, 350-354,
380, 382-383, 431, 586-588, 592-593
Homosexual, 357-362, 376, 378, 382-
384, 624-631, 634-636, 640-654
Marital intercourse, 355-357, 380, 569-
570
Masturbation, 339-343, 375-377, 380,
500-509
Nocturnal emissions, 342-345, 376, 378,
380, 520-525
Nudity, 365-367, 372, 386, 574, 581, 604
Oral eroticism, 170, 368-373, 574-578,
605
Petting, 345-347, 365-373, 376-381,
534-539
Pre-marital intercourse, 347-355, 364,
376, 381-383, 549-559
Prostitute intercourse, 351-355, 376,
598-602
Sources of first ejaculation, 190-192
Sources of total outlet, 490-493
Total intercourse, 316, 358, 400, 404,
410-411, 413, 456, 480-481, 566-567
Total outlet, 335-339
Efferz, 291
Egyptian sex code, 465
Ejaculation
Delayed, 580-581
First, 183-186
Multiple, 179-180, 215-216, 232-233,
579
Nature of, 157-161
Premature, 580-581
Source of first, 190-192, 300-303
Speed of, 178-179, 231, 579-581
Spontaneous, 190-192, 517-518
Without orgasm, 159
INDEX
Ejaculatoiy impotence, 209
Elder, /. H,, 205, 373, 772
Elliott, G. L., 514, 528, 541, 543, 560,
111
Ellis, Havelock, 34, 74, 110, 514, 518, 525,
526, 527, 530, 591, 606, 618-619, 651,
111
Emissions, nocturnal. See Nocturnal
emissions.
Emotions and sex, 164-165, 192
Empedocles, 297
Enforcement of sex law, 4, 223-225, 263-
265, 389-393, 437, 447, 572, 577, 583,
601-603, 605, 655, 664-666, 677
English, O. S., 506, 514, 517, 525, 542, 546,
111
Erection
Aging effects, 230-231
Angle of penis, 230-231
Impotence, 209, 236-238, 297, 323, 545
Morning, 230, 235, 237
Nature of, 157-161
Erogenous zones, 573
Erotic response, 65, 69, 157-161, 216-217,
517-518, 521, 525-527
Aging effects, 229-230
Pre-adolescent, 175-181
Social level, 210, 345, 363-364, 521
Erotica, 23, 65
European patterns, 515, 559, 593
Evans, W., 591, 778
Executives, business, defined, 79
Exhibition, genital, 165-173, 501
Exner, M. J., 24, 28, 31-33, 499, 527, 529,
552, 560, 606, 111
Extra-marital intercourse, 583-594
Accumulative incidence, 584-588
Active incidence, 257, 259, 282, 284, 288,
348, 350, 352, 412, 431, 456, 585-587
Aging effects, 248, 250, 257, 259, 568,
587-588
Data on histories, 67
Frequencies, 257, 259, 282-288, 348,
350, 352, 354, 410, 431, 456, 586-589
Religious background, 481, 589
Rural-urban, 456, 588, 589
Significance in total outlet, 489, 492-
493, 587-588, 590
Social level, 348, 350-354, 380, 382-383,
431, 586-588, 592-593
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 586-589
Extra-marital petting, 532
Falk, H. a, 204, 768
Family, basis of, 563
Fantasy, in dreams, 525-527
Fantasy, in masturbation, 510-511, 523
793
Fantasy, in social levels, 210, 345, 363-364,
521
Faris, R, E. L., 606, 776
Fatigue, physical, 206
Feeble-minded, 49, 53, 55, 608
Fehlinger, H., 547, 559, 111
Fellation, 170-172, 368-373, 540, 573-578,
616
Fellation, self, 510
Female
Adolescence, 183, 187
Comparison with male, 157, 167, 183,
187, 216, 223, 544-546, 571, 575-576,
581, 589-590
Masturbation, 576
Pre-adolescent play, 157, 167
Pre-marital activity, 223, 544-546
Prostitution, 61, 67-68, 216, 595-609
Unresponsiveness, 157, 207, 209, 544-
546
Feminine behavior, 613-615
Fertility, adolescent, 185
Fetish, 607
Finger, F. W,, 15, 19, 31, 33, 499, 552, 621,
111
Flagellation, 607
Fleege, U. H, 503, 543, 773
Folsom, J, K,, 618, 773
Forbush, W. B., 543, 560, 773
Ford, C. S,, 547, 583, 773
Ford, F. R., 186, 773
Ford,M.E. N., 591, 782
Forel, A., 513, 591, 606, 773
Fortune, R. F, 547, 583, 773
Frank, H,, 543, 560, 773
Frank, R„ 514, 528, 541, 543, 560, 773
Frequencies
Animal contacts, 260-262, 293, 362-
363, 461-464, 671-673
Daily, 205
Excessive, defined, 199-203, 213-217
Extra-marital intercourse, 257, 259,
282-288, 348, 350, 352, 354, 410, 431,
456, 586-589
High, 197-203, 213-217
Homosexual, 258-261, 290-293, 320,
357, 359-361, 410, 438-439, 442, 460,
484, 631-636
Low, 205-213
Marital intercourse, 126-128, 252-257,
278-280, 355-356, 410, 432, 459, 482,
569-571
Masturbation, 238-243, 270-273, 310-
313, 339-341, 422-423, 450, 470-471,
504-509
Nocturnal emissions, 242-245, 274-277,
315, 322, 342-345, 406-407, 410, 424-
425, 442, 452-453, 474-476, 521-525
Personality correlations, 325-326
794
INDEX
Frequencies, Continued
Petting, 244-249, 345-347, 407, 410,
428-429, 442, 453-454, 477-478, 533,
538-539
Pre-marital intercourse, 248-253, 278-
288, 314, 347-355, 430-431, 434-435,
456, 458, 480-481, 552-556
Prostitute intercourse, 250-251, 285-
288, 352-354, 410-413, 434-435, 442,
458, 601-603
Total intercourse, 256, 278-280, 348-
349, 358, 410-411, 430-431, 456, 480-
481
Total outlet, 193-217, 220-221, 226,
266-269, 273, 302-307, 336-338, 410,
420-421, 448, 466-467
VaHdity of data, 123-126, 135, 143, 147,
149, 152-153
Frequency curve. 111, 198-201
Frequency statistics, 110-114
Freud, 5., 34, 163, 180-181, 206-207, 263,
497, 525
Frigidity, female, 157, 207, 209, 544-546
Gallichan, W, M., 560, 773
Gartland, F. E., 543, 560, 773
Generations, older vs. younger, 150, 368,
372, 394-417
Genital data on histories, 64-65
Gemtal stimulation, 367-373, 540-541,
575-578
Geographic breakdown, 81
Gerontology, 226-227, 235-238, 319-325
Gillis, J, M., 560, 773
GI patterns, 197, 388-389, 416-417, 437,
552 , 617, 621-622, 664
Girls. See Female.
Goldschmidt, R., 657-659, 661-662, 773
Grade in school, vs. adolescence, 186-
187
Grant, F, C., 186, 786
Greece, 202, 465, 526, 613, 660
Greulich, W, W., 183, 774
Griffin, L, F., 543, 560, 774
Group activity, 67, 169-170, 501, 607, 675
Group frequencies, 110-114
Growth in height, 183-185
Gruenberg, B. C., 514, 530, 774
Guild, H., 186, 773
Gynandromorph, 658
Hair, pubic, 130-131, 183-185
Haire, N., 499, 514, 517, 606, 618, 774
Hall, G. S., 513, 529, 774
Hall, W, S., 291, 513, 527, 528-560, 606,
774
Halverson, H. M., 163-164, 774
Hamilton, G. V., vii, 25, 28, 32-34, 167,
175, 204, 222, 499, 519, 533, 552, 585,
591, 621, 774
Handicapped persons, 608
Harper, R. F., 465, 547, 583, 774
Hartland, E., 583, 774
Hattendorf, K, W., 163, 774
Health, affecting sexual activity, 64-65,
204-206, 209
Hebrews. See Bible, Talmud.
Height, development, 183-185
Heller, C. G., 204, 227, 774
Henry, G. W., 34, 207, 514, 515, 612, 775
Heredity, sexual, 203-204, 661-663
Hermaphrodite, 526, 658
Hermaphroditism, psychosexual, 612
Heterosexual. See the following:
Coital positions
Coital techniques
Coitus, extra-marital
Coitus, marital
Coitus, post-marital
Coitus, pre-adolescent
Coitus, pre-mantal
Coitus, prostitute
Coitus, total
Erotic response
Female
Incest
Kissing
Oral eroticism
Petting
Pre-adolescent sex play, heterosexual
Heterosexual-homosexual balance, 636-
659
Heterosexual-homosexual rating scale,
638-641
High frequencies of outlet, 195, 197-198,
213-217
Hildebrand, D, V., 560, 775
Himes, N. K, 514, 546, 775
Hirschfeld, M., 34, 618-620, 651, 775
Hirsh, E., 103, 778
History, items covered, 63-70
History of study, 3-34
Hittite code, 465, 547, 583, 668
Hohman, L, 5., 26, 29, 499, 552, 621-622,
115
Hollingshead, A. B., 77, 331, 775
Homosexual, 610-666
Accumulative incidence, 100-101, 140-
141, 145-146, 317, 321, 402-403, 617-
631, 623, 650-651, 653-655
Active incidence, 629-631, 640-652,
650-652
Age at adolescence, 312, 315, 317, 320-
321, 630
Aging effects, 258-261, 290-292, 629-
630, 636
INDEX
795
Homosexual, Continued
Data on histories, 65, 68-70
Defined, 577, 612-617, 623
Etiologic factors, 660-663
Frequencies, 258-261, 290-293, 320,
357, 359-361, 410, 438-439, 442, 460,
484, 631-636
Inheritance, 661-663
- Institutional, 129-130, 210, 224, 529,
617, 647, 664
Marital status, 285, 289-292, 631
Neuroses, 201-203, 660
Oral contacts, 370
Post-marital, 290-292, 295-296
Pre-adolescent, 162, 167-172
Prison, 129-130, 210, 224, 529, 617, 647,
664
Prostitution, 70, 216, 596
Re-direction, 608, 660
Religious background, 482-484, 631,
636-
Rural-urban, 455-460, 630-631, 636
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
382, 488-493, 610
Social level, 357-362, 376, 378, 382-384,
438-439, 442, 624-631, 634-636, 640-
654
Social significance, 663-666
Two generations, 396, 402-403, 410,
412-414, 631
Validity of data, 90, 100-101, 123, 134-
135, 140-147, 618-622, 625-627
Variation, 234, 633-636
Homosexual-heterosexual ratmg scale,
638-641
Honigmann, L, 103, llS
Hormone, male, 204, 615, 659
Hormone, thyroid, 204
Hotchkiss, R, S., 527, 776
Hughes, W. L., 26, 28, 499, 519, 776
Hundred percent samples, 93-102,
133
Hunt, J. McV., 497, 606, 776
Hyman, H. T., 514 , 116
Hypersexual, defined, 199
Hypospadia, 659
Impotence, 158, 209, 236-238, 297, 323,
517, 545
Differential, 517
Ejaculatory, 209
Premature ejaculation, 580-581
Incest, 558
Incidence, accumulative. See Accumula-
tive incidence.
Incidence, active
Animal contacts, 260-262, 362-363,
461-464, 670
Incidence, active, Continued
Extra-marital intercourse, 257, 259, 282,
284, 288, 348, 350, 352, 412, 431, 456,
585-587
Homosexual, 629-631, 640-652,650-652
Marital intercourse, 252-254, 281, 355-
356, 412, 432, 459, 482, 564-565
Masturbation, 238-241, 270-273, 277,
310, 313, 339-340, 422-423, 450, 470-
471, 507-509
Nocturnal emissions, 242-243, 274-277,
322, 342-344, 412, 424-425, 452, 474-
475, 519-525
Petting, 244-246, 345-346, 412, 428-
429, 454, 478, 533, 539
Pre-adolescent sex play, 162, 165-174
Pre-marital intercourse, 24^251, 278,
280-288, 313-315, 347-352, 43(M31,
434-435, 456, 458, 480-481, 552-556
Prostitute intercourse, 250-251, 281,
285-286, 351-353, 434-435, 458, 600-
603
Incidence data, validity, 121-124, 135-143,
147, 149, 152
Individual variation. See Variation, indi-
vidual.
Industrial problems, 386-387
Infants, sexual response, 160, 163-164,
175-181, 497-506, 542-543
Infidelity, marital. See Coitus, extra-mar-
ital.
Inheritance, sexual, 203-204, 661-663
Inhibitions, 211-213, 364-367, 369-374,
381-382, 472, 483-487, 542-546, 561,
573-578
Institutions
Homosexual in, 129-130, 210, 224, 529,
617, 647, 664
Mental, 49, 53, 55, 197, 224, 608, 617,
647, 664
Penal, 129-130, 197, 210, 224-225, 386,
390-393, 528-529, 617, 647, 664
Intercourse, extra-marital, 583-594
Accumulative incidence, 584-588
Active incidence, 257, 259, 282, 284, 288,
348, 350, 352, 412, 431, 456, 585-587
Aging effects, 248, 250, 257, 259, 568,
587-588
Data on histories, 67
Frequencies, 257, 259, 282-288, 348,
350, 3B2, 354, 410, 431, 456, 586-589
Religious background, 481, 589
Rural-urban, 456, 588-589
Sigmficance in total outlet, v, 489, 492-
493, 587-588, 590
Social level, 348, 350-354, 380, 382-383,
431, 586-588, 592-593
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 586-589
796
INDEX
Intercourse, first, 315-317, 565-566
Intercourse, marital, 563-582
Active incidence, 252-254, 281, 355-
356, 412, 432, 459, 482, 564-567
Age at adolescence, 306-308, 569
Aging effects, 252-257, 278-281, 285,
567-569
Data on histories, 66
Frequencies, 126-128, 252-257, 278-
280, 355-356, 432, 459, 482, 569-571
Marital outlet, 252-257, 278-281
Religious background, 479-482, 569,
571
Rural-urban, 455, 459, 569
Significance in total outlet, 380, 382,
489, 492-493, 564-568
Social level, 355-357, 380, 432, 569-
570
Techniques, 365-374, 571-582
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 569-571
Intercourse, oldest depiction, 374
Intercourse, positions, 372-374, 578-579,
604
Intercourse, post-marital, 67, 278-280,
282-284, 286-288, 295, 489
Intercourse, pre-adolescent, 162, 166, 169-
170, 173-174
Intercourse, pre-marital, 547-562
Accumulative incidence, 139, 141, 145-
146, 397, 400-401, 404-405, 549-551
Active incidence, 248-251, 278, 280-
288, 313-315, 347-352, 430-431, 434-
435, 456, 458, 480-481, 552-556
Age at adolescence, 312-315, 324, 553
Aging effects, 248-253, 277-288, 552-
553
Attitudes on, 364, 381-383, 559-562
Data on histories, 66
Frequencies, 248-253, 278-288, 314,
347-355, 430-431, 434-435, 456, 458,
480-481, 552-556
Marital status, 277-288
Religious background, 477-481, 553
Rural-urban, 455-456, 458, 462, 553,
556
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
489-491
Social level, 347-355, 364, 376, 381-383,
426-427, 430-436, 442-445, 549-559
Social significance, 559-562
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410-413, 556-557
Variation, 234, 324, 553-555
Intercourse, prostitute, 595-609
Accumulative incidence, 100-101, 116-
118, 139, 141, 402-403, 597-600
Active incidence, 250-251, 281, 285-
288, 351-353, 434-435, 458, 600-603
Intercourse, prostitute, Continued
Aging effects, 250-253, 281, 285-288,
601
Data on histories, 67-68
Frequencies, 250-251, 285-288, 352-
354, 410-413, 434-435, 442, 458, 601-
603
Marital status, 277-288, 600-601
Rural-urban, 455, 458, 462
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
489-493, 597-601
Social level, 351-355, 376, 434-435, 442,
588, 598-602
Social significance, 605-609
Techniques, 604-605
Two generations, 396, 402-403, 410-
413, 603-604
Variation, 234, 601-603
Intercourse, techniques, 67, 365-374, 571-
582, 604-605
Intercourse, total
Accumulative incidence, 98, 101, 137-
138, 316-317, 396, 400-401, 404-405,
565- 567
Aging effects, 256
Frequencies, 256, 278-280, 348-349,
358, 410-411, 430-431, 456, 480-481
Social level, 316, 348-349, 358, 400, 404,
410-411, 413, 430-431, 456, 480-481,
566- 567
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410
Intersex, 612, 657-659
Interspecific mating, 668
Interview, data on
Animal contacts, 65, 70
Heterosexual relations, 65-68
Homosexual, 65, 68-70
Marital history, 64
Masturbation, 65-66
Nocturnal emissions, 65
Physical and physiologic, 64-65
Sex education, 64
Socio-economic background, 63-64
Interviewers, comparisons of data, 133-
143
Interviewers, training, 59-62
Interviewing techniques, 35-62
Children, 58-59
Coding, 44-45, 71-73
Confidence of record, 44-47
Cross-checks, 54-55, 128-130
Making contacts, 3^1
Rapport, 41-44, 48
Recording data, 44-45, 50, 71-73
Sequence of topics, 48-49
Validity, 54-55
Inversion, 612, 614-615
Isaacs, S„ 163, 776
INDEX
797
Jackson, C. M., 204, 776
Jefferis, B. G., 513, 527, 543, 560, 776
Jelhffe, S.E., 497, 560, 779
Jerome, E. K.,\S5,116
Jewish sex patterns, 465-487. See also
Bible, Talmud.
Job classification, 334
Jones, H. E., 183, 776
Jung, F. T., 185, 776
Juvenile court, 224-225
Juvenile delinquency, 163-174, 223-225,
263-265, 389-393, 437, 664-665
Kahn, F., 215, 776
Kaukonen, J. L., 514, 530, 774
Kelly, G., 530, 543, 560, 776
Kempf, E. J., 222, 776
Kirkendall, L, A„ 514, 527, 543, 560, 606,
111
Kirsch, F, M., 503, 527, 543, 560, 111
Kiser, C V., 92-93, 786-787
Kissing, 368-369, 531, 540, 573-578
Deep, 368-369, 540, 574
Klemer, D, H., 530, 111
Kluckhohn, C,, 497, 780
Knots, breast, 185
Koch, R. A., 606, 111
Krafft-Ebing, R„ 34, 175, 111
Kubitschek, P. E,, 183, 111
Laborers
Day, 78, 426-427
Semi-skilled, 78, 426-427
Skilled, 78, 427, 433
Landes, R., 547, 111
Landis, C., vii, 9, 26-27, 29, 497, 514, 530,
546, 111
Laton, A. D., 514, 546, 111
Law, ecclesiastic, 202, 465
Law, sex, 4, 223-225, 237-238, 263-265,
389-393, 437, 447, 572, 577-578, 583,
601-603, 605, 655, 664-666, 677
Legman, G,, 612, 775
Legrain, L., 374, 111
Lesbian, 613
Levels. See Social level.
Levels, educational. See Educational level.
Levels, occupational. See Occupational
class.
Levy, D. M., 163, 111
Licht, if., 526, 660, 111
Lieber, L., 513, 527, 778
Liederman, E, E., 297, 529, 543, 560, 778
Light and dark, preferences for, 581
Lindsey, J?. .0., 591, 778
Linton, R., SAl, 583, 778
Lips, J., 583, 778
Lisser, H., 204, 778
Literature, sex, 22-23
Lorand, S,, 497, 525, 778
Lordosis, 613
Lorge, /., 329, 778
Lovell, P. M., 514, 517, 530, 778
Low frequencies of outlet, 205-213
Lower white collar group, 78, 433
Lowry, O., 560, 778
Lunt, P. S., 77, 331, 786
MacGowan, K., 25, 774
Male hormone, 204, 615, 659
Male menopause, 227, 235
Malinowski, B., 4, 222, 373, 547, 559, 583,
778
Mantegazza, P., 34, 778
Marcuse, M., 34
Marihuana, 49
Marines. See Armed forces.
Marital intercourse, 563-582
Active incidence, 252-254, 281, 355-356,
412, 432, 459, 482, 564-565
Age at adolescence, 306-308, 569
Aging effects, 252-257, 278-281, 285,
567-569
Data on histories, 66
Frequencies, 126-128, 252-257, 278-
280, 355-356, 432, 459, 482, 569-571
Marital outlet, 252-257, 278-281
Religious background, 479-482, 569,
571
Rural-urban, 455, 459, 569
Significance in total outlet, 380, 382,
489, 492-493, 564-568
Social level, 355-357, 380, 432, 569-570
Techniques, 365-374, 571-582
Two generations, 410, 412, 414
Variation, 234, 569-571
Marital maladjustment, 544-546, 578,
591-594
Mantal status, 263-296
Animal contacts, 289, 293, 673
Defined, 76
Homosexual, 285, 289-292, 631
Marital outlet, 252-257, 278-281
Masturbation, 270-273, 277, 507-508
Nocturnal emissions, 274-277, 519, 521
Petting, 277, 532
Pre-marital intercourse, 277-288
Prostitute intercourse, 277-288, 600-601
Total outlet, 266-273
Marriage
Accumulative incidence, 318-319
Adjustments, 542-546, 561-562, 571,
578, 591-593
Age at adolescence, 315, 318-319
Choice of mate, 197
798
INDEX
Marriage, Continued
Counseling, 386-387, 543, 545
Data on histories, 64
Functions, 563
Martindale, C. C., 560, 606, 778
Masculine behavior, 613-614
Masculinity-femininity scale, 637-638
Maslow, A. H., 103-104, 778
Masochism, 60, 510, 526, 607
Masturbation, 497-516
Accumulative incidence, 96-97, 136-
137, 144-145, 311, 317, 398-399, 408-
409, 499-502
Active incidence, 238-241, 270-273,
277, 310, 313, 339-340, 422-423, 450,
470-471, 507-508
Age at adolescence, 310-313, 317, 324,
507
Aging effects, 238-243, 270-272, 506-
507
Animal, 675-676
Data on histones, 65-66
Defined, 497-498
Exhibitionistic, 169, 501
Fantasies, 510-511, 523
Female, 576
Frequencies, 238-243, 270-273, 310-
313, 339-341, 422-423, 450, 470-471,
504-509
Harmful effects, 437, 512-516
Infant, 163, 497-506
Mantal status, 270-273, -277, 507-508
Mutual, 170, 616
Post-marital, 270-272, 294
Religious background, 470-473, 476,
509
Rural-urban, 450, 453, 462, 509
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
380, 382, 488-493, 506-509
Social level, 339-343, 375-378, 380,
422-423, 442, 444, 500-509
Techniques, 509-511
Two generations, 396-399, 408-412,
508-509
Variation, 91, 234, 324, 504-506
Mating, interspecific, 668
Mating, sources of attaction, 667-668
May, G., 4, 202, 263, 297, 465, 483, 778
McGill, M. E., 543, 560, 778
McNemar, Q,, 32, 42, 52, 779
McPartland, 395, 606, 619, 779
Mead, M., 227, 547, 559, 583, 779
Meagher, J, F. W., 497, 560, 779
Means, defined, 112
Medians, defined, 113-114
Memory, immediate vs, remote, 148-150
Memory, vahdity, 120-153, 148-150, 183-
185
Menarche, 187
Menopause, male, 227, 235
Menstruation, 65, 187
Mental institutions, 49, 53, 55, T97, 224,
608, 617, 647, 664
Meredith, H. V., 183, 185, 779
Merrill, L., 27, 28, 31, 175, 499, 779
Metabolic level, 204, 309, 313
Method of sex studies, 23-34, 35-119
Meyer, F., 513, 525, 543, 560, 591, 606, 779
Miles, W, R., 204, 618, 637, 779
Miller, G. S., 563, 779
Mobility, vertical, 417-439
Moffett, M„ 543, 779
Moll, A,, 34, 175, 525, 779-780
Moore, C. R., 204, 780
Moore, T. V., 181, 202, 513, 543, 560, 618,
780
Moral interpretations, 5, 384-386, 678
Mores
Origifi, 202-203, 263-265, 465, 468,
483-487, 547-548
Transmission, 440-447
Morgan, W. H., 543, 780
Morley, S, G., 547, 559, 780
Mormng erections, 230, 235, 237
Moses, J,, 175, 780
Mouth eroticism, 170-171, 368-373, 540,
573-578, 605-607, 614-616
Mouth-genital contacts, 170-174, 368-
373, 510, 540, 573-578, 616
Mowrer, O. H., 497, 780
Mucus, pre-coital, 230-233
Multiple orgasm, 179-180, 215-216, 232-
233 579
Murdock, G., 547, 559, 583, 780
Myers, G. B., Ill, 11 A
Ndcke, P., 526, 780
Narcotics, 49, 521
National Research Council, v, vii, ix, 510,
668
Natural law, 202-203, 385-386
Naval Academy, U. S., 264, 513
Navy. See Armed forces.
Negro, histones, 217, 235, 237, 388, 393
Nelson, W. O., 204
Nichols, J. L., 513, 527, 543, 560, 776
Nocturnal emissions, 517-530
Accumulative incidence, 96-97, 137-
138, 144-145, 398-399, 408-409, 519-
522
Active incidence, 242-243, 274-277,
322, 342-344, 412, 424-425, 452, 474-
475, 519-525
Age at adolescence, 315, 322, 523
Agmg effects, 242-245, 274-276, 521,
523
Data on histories, 65
INDEX
799
Nocturnal emissions, Continued
Frequencies, 242-245, 274-277, 315,
322, .342-345, 406-407, 410, 424-425
442, 452-453, 474-476, 521-525
Marital status, 274-277, 519, 521
Post-marital, 274-276, 294-295
Religious background, 474-476, 525,
527-528
Rural-urban, 452-453, 462, 525
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
380, 382, 488-493
Social level, 342-345, 376, 378, 380, 382,
424-425, 442, 444, 520-525
Two generations, 396-399, 408-410,
412, 525
Variation, 234, 521, 524
Non-marital intercourse. See:
Extra-marital intercourse
Post-marital intercourse
Pre-marital intercourse
Prostitute intercourse
Non-sexual stimuli, 164-165
Norbury,E,P„ 221, 780
Normal, defined, 7, 37, 199-203, 385-386,
572-581
Northcote, H., 465, 780
Nowlis, K., viii, 222, 373, 780
Nudity, social level and, 365-367, 372,
386, 574, 581, 604
Nutrition, 187, 204
Nymphomania, defined, 199-203
Occupational class, 330-362, 417-447. See
also Social level.
Definition, 77-79, 330-335, 418-442
Erotic responsiveness, 345, 363-364
Extra-marital intercourse, 354, 382-383,
431, 588
Homosexual, 357, 361-362, 438 t439,
442 1
Marital intercourse, 356-357, 432
Masturbation, 341, 343, 422-423, 442,
444
Nocturnal emissions, 343, 345, 424-425,
442 444
Petting, 346-347, 428-429, 442
Pre-marital intercourse, 349, 351, 353-
355, 381-383, 426-427, 430-436, 442-
445
Prostitute intercourse, 353-355, 434-
435, 442, 601
Total intercourse, 348-349, 430-431
Total outlet, 338-339, 420-421, 442
Oedipus complex, 315
Ogive, 115-117
Old age, 226-227, 235-238, 319-325
Older vs. younger generations, 150, 368,
372, 394-417
Oncers, 383
Onset of sexual activity, vs. age at ado-
lescence, 298-303
Oral contacts
Accumulative incidence, 370-371, 373
Homosexual, 370
Marital, 576-578
Pre-adolescent, 170-171, 174
Oral eroticism, 170-171, 368-373, 510,
540, 573-578, 605-607, 614-616
Orbison, JV. D., 205, 787
Orgasm
Age at first, 175-181, 183-186
Capacity to delay, 580-581
Multiple, 179-180, 215-216, 232-233,
579
Nature, 157-161, 573-576
Pre-adolescent, 159-161, 175-181
Premature, 580-581
Source of first, 164-165, 190-192, 300-
303
Speed, 178-179, 231, 579-581
Spontaneous, 190-192, 517-518
Variation, 160-161, 178-180
Without ejaculation, 159
Orgastic pleasure, 159
Outlet, regularity of, 192
Outlet, total. See Total outlet.
Over-sexed, defined, 199-203
Painter, T., 618, 780
Parole, sexual problems, 225, 391-393.
See also Law, sex.
Partial samples, 94-104
Patten, B, M., 659, 780
Patterns of behavior, 374-447
Stability, 394-447
Pearl, Raymond, 27-28, 76, 89, 193, 213,
221, 449, 569, 780
Pearson, G. H. J., 514, 542, 546, 111
Pearsonian r, 114, 122-123, 126
Peck, M, W,, vii, 27-28, 31, 33, 499, 519,
780-781
Pedrey, C. P., 185, 781
Penal institutions, 129-130, 197, 210, 224-
225, 386, 390-393, 528-529, 617, 647,
664
Penis, erect angle, 230-231
Percents of outlet
Group,' 114
Individual, 114
Periodicity, 74, 110
Personality, vs. sexual frequencies, 325-
326
Perversions, defined, 201-203, 264-265,
389, 572-581, 604, 677-678
Peterson, K. M., 29-30, 31-33, 499, 519,
552, 781
800
INDEX
Petting, 531-546
Accumulative incidence, 97-98, 406-
409, 533-537
Active incidence, 244-246, 345-346,
412, 428-429, 454, 478, 533, 539
Aging effects, 244-249, 539
Data on histories, 66-67
Defined, 531
' Extra-marital, 532
Frequencies, 244-249, 345-347, 407,
410, 428-429, 442, 453-454, 477-478,
533, 538-539
Marital status, 277, 532
Pre-coital, 572-573
Religious backgrounds, 477-478, 540
Rural-urban, 453-454, 462, 539
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
488-491
Social level, 345-347, 365-373, 376-381,
428-429, 442, 534-539, 541
Social significance, 542-546
Techniques, 367-373, 540-542, 571-581
Two generations, 397, 406-407, 408-
410, 412, 537-539, 541
Variation, 234, 533, 538-539
Petting to climax. See Petting.
Physical defects, 209
Physical exercise, affecting sex, 206
Pimp, 61
Pin-point sampling, 82-83
Pioneers, sexual patterns of, 457, 459, 630-
631
Pituitary, 204
Plato, 297*
Plattner, K., 528, 781
Pleasure, orgastic, 159
Popenoe, P., 514, 543, 546, 560, 591, 606,
781
Positions in intercourse, 312-374, 51%-
579, 604
Post-marital outlets, 294-296
Agmg effects, 262-292, 294-296
Homosexual, 290-292, 295-296
Intercourse, 67, 278-280, 282-284, 286-
288, 295, 489
Masturbation, 270-272, 294
Nocturnal emissions, 274-276, 294-295
Total outlet, 266-267
Pratt, J,P., 204, 781
Pre-adolescents, 157-181
Anal contacts, 170-171
Animal contacts, 174, 671, 673
Coitus, 162, 166, 169-170, 173-174
Companions, 168
Development of attitudes, 440-447
Erotic response, 175-181
Interviewing, 58-59
Oral contacts, 170-171, 174
Orgasm, 159-161, 175-181
Pre-adolescents, Continued
Sex play, 66, 68-69, 162-181, 497, 499-
506
Sex play, ages, 162, 167, 169, 171-173
Sex play, female, 157, 167
Sex play, heterosexual, 162, 166-174
Sex play, homosexual, 162, 167-172
Sex play, incidence, 162, 165-174
Pre-coital mucus, 230-233
Pregnancy, fear of, 364
Pre-mar ital adjustment, 222-223, 544-546
Pre-mantal intercourse, 547-562
Accumulative incidence, 139, 141, 145-
146, 397, 400-401, 404-405, 549-551
Active incidence, 248-251, 278, 280-
288, 313-315, 347-352, 430-431,
434-435, 456, 458, 480-481, 552-556
Age at adolescence, 312-315, 324, 553
Aging effects, 248-253,277-288, 552-553
Attitudes on, 364, 381-383, 559-562
Data on histones, 66
Frequencies, 248-253, 278-288, 314,
347-355, 430-431, 434-435, 456, 458,
480-481, 552-556
Pre-marital outlet, 277-288
Religious background, 477-481, 553
Rural-urban, 455-456, 458, 462, 553,
556
Significance in total cutlet, 376, 378,
489-491
Social level, 347-355, 364, 376, 381-383,
426-427, 430-436, 442-445, 549-559
Social significance, 559-562
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410-413, 556-557
Variation, 234, 324, 553-555
Premature ejaculation, 580-581
Prime of life, 222
Primitive sex codes, 465, 547, 583, 668
Prison. See Penal institution.
Professional group, 79, 436
Promiscuity, 589-590, 632
Prostitutes, intercourse with, 595-609
Accumulative incidence, 100-101, 116-
118, 139, 141, 402-403, 597-600
Active incidence, 250-251, 281, 285-
288, 351-353, 434-435, 458, 600-603
Aging effects, 250-253, 281, 285-288,
601
Data on histories, 67-68
Frequencies, 250-251, 285-288, 352-
354, 410-413, 434-435, 442, 458, 601-
603
Marital status, 277-288, 600-601
Rural-urban, 455, 458, 462
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378,
489-493, 597-601
Social level, 351-355, 376, 434-435, 442,
588, 598-602
INDEX
801
Prostitutes, intercourse with, Continued
Social significance, 605-609
Techniques, 604-605
Two generations, 396, 402-403, 410-
413, 603-604
Variation, 234, 601-603
Prostitution, heterosexual, 61, 67-68, 216,
415-416, 595-609
•Prostitution, homosexual, 70, 216, 596
Protestant sex patterns, 465-487
Psychiatrists, histories of, 21 1
Psychologic factors, 157, 204, 216-217,
309, 327-328, 440-447, 509, 515-5X8,
523, 529, 569-571, 661, 676-678
Psychologists, histories of, 211
Psychoneuroses, 201-203, 660
Pubic hair, development, 130-131, 183-185
Public opinion, fear of, 364
Public opinion polls, 20, 33
Questionnaire, 63-70
Race-cultural groups, 75-76
Ramsey, G. K, viii, 29-30, 31, 32, 164, 183,
185, 298, 499, 533, 621,781
Range of variation. See Vanation, indi-
vidual.
Rape, 237-238
Rat, sexual behavior, 613-615
Rating scale, heterosexual-homosexual,
638-641
Rattler, T. A., 503, 528, 560, 591, 606, 782
Ratzel, R, 547, 781
Recall, immediate vs. remote, 148-150
Recreational data on histories, 63-64
Redemptorist Father, 543, 560, 781
Regular outlet, 192
Reich, W„ 159, 781
Reichard, G., 547, 559, 583, 781
Reitman, B., 591
Reliability of data, 54-55, 120-153. See
also Statistical analyses.
Religion
Classification, 79, 81, 468
Effect on sex behavior, 465-487
Source of sex mores, 202-203, 263-265,
465, 468, 483-487, 547-548
Religious background, 465-487
Extra-marital intercourse, 481, 589
Homosexual, 482-484, 631, 636
Marital intercourse, 479-482, 569, 571
Masturbation, 470-473, 476, 509
Nocturnal emissions, 474-476, 525,
Petting, 477-478, 540
Pre-marital intercourse, 477-481, 553
Total outlet, 466-469, 472
Responsiveness, erotic. See Erotic re-
sponse.
Re-takes, 121-125
Rice, T. B., 297, 395, 514, 530, 541, 543,
546, 560, 591, 606, 781
Richey, H. G„ 309, 781
Roaring twenties, 396
Robinson, S,, 227, 309, 782
Robinson, V., 514, 591, 597, 606, 782
Robinson, W. J., 297, 782
Rockefeller Foundation, v, vii, ix
Rockwood, L. D., 591, 782
Rohleder, H., 34, 175, 190, 499, 782
Roman ascetic cults, 202, 465
Romer, 619
Rosanoff, A. 514, 606, 618, 782
Roth, A. A., 204
Rothney, J. W, M„ 183, 771
Ruland, L., 503, 528, 560, 591, 606, 782
Rural-urban, 449-464
Animal contacts, 459-464
Classification, 79, 451
Extra-marital intercourse, 456, 588-589
Homosexual, 455-460, 630-631, 636
Marital intercourse, 455, 459, 569
Masturbation, 450, 453, 462, 509
Nocturnal emissions, 452-453, 462, 525
Patterns, 449-464
Petting, 453-454, 462, 539
Pre-marital intercourse, 455-456, 458,
462, 553, 556
Prostitute intercourse, 455, 458, 462
Total outlet, 448, 451-453
Sadler, W, S, andL, K., 514, 530, 543, 560,
606, 782
Sampling, 82-105
Diversification, 92-93
Hundred percent, 93-102, 133
Order, 104-105
Partial samples, 94-104
Size of sample, 82-92, 737-764
Techniques, 82-105
U. S. synthesis, 105-109
Sappho, 613
Satyriasis, defined, 199-203
Schajfner, B,, 26, 29, 499, 552, 621-622,
775
Schapera, /., 547, 583, 783
Schedule 6f questions, 63-70
Schonfeld, W.A., 130-131, 183, 783
School, boarding, sex in, 225
School grade, vs. age at adolescence, 186-
187
School teachers, 223, 387
Sears, R. R,, 163, 164, 783
Selective Service, 621-622, 783
Self fellation, 510, 614
802
INDEX
Semen, source, 527-528
Semi-skilled laborers, 78, 426-421
Sequence, in interviewing, 48-49
Seward, G. H., 514, 533, 591, 783
Sex drive
High, 178-180, 195, 197-198, 213-217
Low, 205-213
Sex education, 64, 197, 223, 440-447, 514-
516, 542-546
Validity of data, 124
Sex hormone, 204, 615, 659
Sex offenses, 4, 223-225, 237-238, 263-
265, 389-393, 437, 447, 572, 577-578,
583, 601-603, 605, 655, 664-666, 677
Sex organs, 573-574
Sex play, pre-adolescent, 66, 68-69, 162-
181, 497, 499-506
Sexual activity, maximum, 219-221
Sexual capacity, maximum, 179-180, 221
Sexual response. See Erotic response.
Sexual variation, maximum, 234-235
Shafton, A, L., 185, 776
Shuttleworth, F. K,, 104, 183, 783
Significance in total outlet, 376, 378, 488-
491
Animal contacts, 378, 488-491, 669-
670
Extra-marital coitus, 489, 492^93, 587-
588, 590
Homosexual, 376, 378, 382, 488-493,
610
Marital intercourse, 380j 382, 489, 492-
493, 564-568
Masturbation, 376, 378, 380, 382, 488-
493, 506-509
Nocturnal emissions, 376, 378, 380, 382,
488-493
Petting, 376, 378, 488-491
Post-marital coitus, 489
Pre-marital intercourse, 376, 378, 489-
491
Prostitute intercourse, 376, 378, 489-
493, 597-601
Skilled laborers, 78, 427, 433
Snedecor, G. If"., 92, 783
Snow, W, F„ 514, 560, 606, 783
Social data on histories, 63-64
Social factors, 204-205, 327-447, 678
Social level, 327-447
Adolescence, age at, 188-189
Animal contacts, 362-363, 671
Coital positions, 372-374, 578-579, 604
Coital techniques, 365-374, 540-542,
571-582, 604-605
Definition, 328-335
Erotic responsiveness, 210, 345, 363-
364, 521
Extra-marital intercourse, 348, 350-354,
380, 382-383, 431, 586-588, 592-593
Social level. Continued
Homosexual, 357-362, 376, 378, 382-
384, 438-439, 442, 624-631, 634-636, ‘
640-654
Marital intercourse, 355-357, 380, 432,
569-570
Masturbation, 339-343, 375-378, 380,
422-423, 442, 444, 500-509
Nocturnal emissions, 342-345, 376, 378,-
380, 382, 424-425, 442, 444, 520-525
Nudity, 365-367, 372, 386, 574, 581, 604
Oral eroticism, 170, 368-373, 574-578,
605
Petting, 345-347, 365-373, 376-381,
428-429, 442, 534-539, 541
Pre-marital intercourse, 347-355, 364,
376, 381-383, 426-427, 430-436, 442-
445, 549-559
Prostitute intercourse, 351-355, 376,
434-435, 442, 588, 598-602
Sources of first ejaculation, 190-192
Sources of total outlet, 490-493
Total intercourse, 316, 348-349, 358,
400, 404, 410-411, 413, 430-431, 456,
480-481, 566-567
Total outlet, 335-339, 420-421, 442
Sokolowsky, A., 205, 783
Sorokin, P., 417, 783
Source of
First ejaculation, 190-192, 300-303
Histories, 5, 13-16, 39
Orgasm, 157, 193, 488
Outlets, number of, 193-196, 228-229
Outlets, relative importance, 376, 378,
380, 382, 488-493
Spalding, H, S,, 513, 560, 606, 770
Spasm, in orgasm, 160-161
Spontaneous ejaculation, 190-192,517-518
Spouses, comparisons of data, 125-128
Squier, R,, 618, 783
Srole, L., 77, 331, 786
Standard deviations, 89-92, 112-113, 738-
748
Statistical analyses, 20-21, 45, 63-108,
109-119, 120-153
Accumulative incidence curves, 114-119
Comparing interviewers, 133-143
Correlation coefficients, 114
Cross-checks, 128-130
Frequencies, 110-114
Frequency class values, 111
Incidence, active, 755-757
Means, 112, 738-748
Medians, 113-114, 749-754
Memory, 120-153, 148-150, 183-185
Mode, height, 760-762
Mode, locus, 758-759
Ogive, 115-117
Pearsonianr, 114, 122-123, 126
INDEX
803
Statistical analyses, Continued
Percents of outlet, 114
Range of variation, 763-765
Re-takes, 121-125
Smooth trends, 132
Stability of method, 142-150
Standard deviations, 89-92, 112-113,
738-748
Stratification, 75-82, 92
Tetrachoric r, 114, 121-123, 126
Twelve-way breakdown, 75-82, 92
Validity of data, 120-153
Stein, M., 103, 778
Stekel, W,, 34, 783-784
Stimuli, non-sexual, 164-165, 191-192
Stith, R., Ill, 779
Stone,- C.P., 615, 784
Stone, H. M. and A., 514, 560, 606, 784
Strain, F.B., 514, 784
Strakosch, F. M., 29-30, 784
Stratifie<J sampling, 75-82, 92
Subareolar nodes, 185
Subhmation, 205-213, 297-326, 528-530
Suicide, 21 1
Tactile stimulation, 157-163, 497-498,
542-543
Talmud, 202, 465, 473, 483, 547-548, 583,
668
Tanner, P., 543, 785
Taxonomic method, 9, 16-21, 299
Taylor; W, 5., 28, 30, 31, 499, 512, 546,
597, 785
Teachers, school, 223, 387
Techniques
Coital, 67, 365-374, 540-542, 571-582,
604-605
Masturbation, 509-511
Petting, 367-373, 540-542, 571-582
Tenenbaum, J., 514
Terman, L. M., vii, 29, 31, 34, 309, 546,
552, 556, 557, 560, 584, 618, 637, 785
Tetrachoric r, 114, 121-123, 126
Third sex, 612
Thornton, V., 514, 785
Thurnwald, R., 547, 583, 785
Thyroid hormone, 204
Timidity, 211, 633
Total coitus
Accumulative incidence, 98, 101, 137-
138, 316-317, 396, 400-401, 404-405,
565- 567
Aging effects, 256
Frequencies, 256, 278-280, 348-349,
358, 410-411, 430-431, 456, 480-481
Social level, 316, 348-349, 358, 400, 404,
410-411, 413, 430-431, 456, 480-481,
566- 567
Total coitus, Continued
Two generations, 396, 400-401, 404-
405, 410
Total outlet, 193-217
Age at adolescence, 302-308, 324
Aging effects, 219-221, 226-230, 266-
267
Average frequency, 194-195
Frequencies, 193-217, 220-221, 226,
266-269, 273, 302-307, 336-338, 410,
420-421, 448, 466-467
Marital status, 266-273
Period of maximum, 219-221
Post-marital, 266-267
Religious background, 466-469, 472
Rural-urban, 448, 451-453
Social level, 335-339, 420-421, 442
Two generations, 399, 401, 405, 410, 412
Variation, 90, 195-203, 234, 324
Trobrianders, 373
Twelve-way breakdown, 75-82, 92
Two generations, 150, 368-372, 394-417
Under-development, defined, 199-203
Underworld, defined, 78, 606
Unresponsiveness, 157, 205-213, 544-546
Upper white collar, 78-79, 433
Ur excavations, 374
Uranism, 612
Urban-rural. See Rural-urban.
Urethral insertions, 170
U. S. Corrections, 105-109
U. S, Public Health Service, 297, 513, 530,
560, 606, 786
Vaginal stimulation, 575-576
Validity of data, 120-153. See also Statis-
tical analyses.
Determination of, 54-55, 120-153
Frequencies, 123-126, 135, 143, 147,
149 152-153
Incid^ce, 121-124, 135-143, 147, 149,
152
Variation, individual
Adolescence, 182-192
Aging effects, 204, 234
Animal contacts, 234, 671, 674
Biologic factors, 203-205, 309-313, 327,
660-663, 678
Coital techniques, 571-582
Extra-marital intercourse, 234, 586-589
Homosexual, 234, 633-636
Marital intercourse, 234, 569-571
Masturbation, 91, 234, 324, 504-506
Nocturnal emissions, 234, 521, 524
Orgasm, 160-161, 178-180
Petting, 234, 533, 538-539
804
INDEX
Variation, individual, Continued
Pre-marital intercourse, 234, 324, 553-
555
Prostitute intercourse, 234, 601-603
Psychologic factors, 157, 204, 216-217,
309, 327-328, 440-447, 509, 515-518,
523, 529, 569-571, 661, 676-678
Social significance, 197-203, 384-393
Sociologic factors, 204-205, 327-447,
678
Total outlet, 90, 195-203, 234, 324
VeckU V. <7., 297, 513, 517, 786
Venereal disease, 364, 606, 608
Vernacular, 52
Vertical mobility, 417-439
Virginity, attitudes on, 364, 379, 547-
548
Vital statistics, 121-124
Vitamins, 204
Voice change, 183-185
War. See Armed forces.
Warner, W, L„ 77, 331, 786
Weatherhead^ L, D,, 513, 530, 543, 606,
786
Weighting tables, U. S. Corrections, 106-
108
Weinberger, L. M., 186, 786
Weiss, 506, 514, 517, 525, 786
Wells, F. L., vii, 27-28, 31, 33, 499, 519,
780
Werner, A. A., 221, 786
Westermarck, £., 4, 483, 786
Wet dreams. See Nocturnal emissions.
Whelpton, P, K., 92-93, 786-787
White collar group, lower, 78, 433
White collar group, upper, 78-79, 433
Wilbur, R. L., 606, 111
Wile, I. S„ 499, 533, 552, 787
Willoughby, R. R., 34, 514, 519, 533, 552,
787
Wissler, C., 547, 583, 787
Wolfe, T. P., 159, 787
Women. See Female.
Wood, L. F., 560
Wulffen, E., 513, 787
Yerkes, R. M., vii, 205, 373, 787
Y.M.C.A., 617
Young, H. H., 186, 787
Young, K„ 207, 787
Young, W. C., 205, 615, 787
Younger vs. older general] on, 150, 368-
372, 394-417
Zoo-erotic. See Animal contacts.
Zoophilia. See Amimal contacts.
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